Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 2015, 7, 851-859 Published Online July 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/jwarp http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jwarp.2015.711069 How to cite this paper: Jebreen, H. and Ghanem, M. (2015) Spring Water Qualitative Assessment in Mountainous Areas, Case Study: Soreq Catchment/Ramallah/West Bank. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 7, 851-859. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jwarp.2015.711069 Spring Water Qualitative Assessment in Mountainous Areas, Case Study: Soreq Catchment/Ramallah/West Bank Hassan Jebreen, Marwan Ghanem Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine Email: mghanem@birzeit.edu Received 25 April 2015; accepted 19 July 2015; published 22 July 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract The hydrochemical characteristics of spring waters in the Soreq-Catchment were determined to identify pollutants in the springs. The ion concentrations were within the allowable WHO limits except two springs located within the center of the populated areas. The water of most of the springs is contaminated with fecal coliform and total coliform. The concentration of nitrate shows moderate values below the WHO limits. The springs in the study area show higher concentrations of heavy metals (Zn, Cd, Mn, As, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, Al, Fe, and V) exceeding the permissible standards set by WHO (2007). Most springs in the study area are of water type (Ca-Mg- 3 HCO − ). Piper’s classi- fication ranges from normal earth alkaline water with prevailing bicarbonate and chloride in both seasons. Comparing the quality of spring water with standards for different uses proved that some springs are unsuitable for human drinking purposes. Keywords Hydrochemistry, Soreq, West Bank, Spring Water 1. Introduction Improving access to safe drinking-water is of major benefit to the human health and every effort should be made to achieve a drinking-water quality as safe as practicable [1]. Water resources in the West Bank are scarce, due to the fact that the West Bank is lying within an arid region. Groundwater is considered to be the main fresh wa- ter resource in the West Bank. This study is considered to be important as there is a lack of detailed information concerning water quality and related issues. This is in spite of the fact that these springs are the major source of water for both domestic and agricultural purposes. The sole source of groundwater in West Bank is in the