Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 2013, 5, 1066-1075 Published Online November 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jwarp) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jwarp.2013.511112 Open Access JWARP Natural and Anthropogenic Influence in Water Quality: The Case of Linares City, NE Mexico Liliana Lizárraga-Mendiola 1* , José Návar 2 , Alberto Blanco-Piñón 3 , Ma. Del Refugio González-Sandoval 1 , Héctor De-León-Gómez 4 1 Área Académica de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo. Mineral de la Reforma, Hidalgo, México 2 Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Durango, Durango, México 3 Área Académica de Ciencias de la Tierra y Materiales, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo. Mineral de la Reforma, Hidalgo, México 4 Instituto de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México Email: * lililga.lm@gmail.com Received May 30, 2013; revised July 2, 2013; accepted August 1, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Liliana Lizárraga-Mendiola et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribu- tion License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT The aim of this research paper was to identify whether the water quality had been influenced either by the natural en- vironment or by anthropogenic activities or both in the municipality of Linares, the second largest city of the State of Nuevo Leon, NE Mexico. The superficial water (Pablillo River) and the groundwater quality (from a fractured and a porous aquifers hydraulically interconnected) were determined by comparing their chemical composition with maxi- mum permissible limits for water consumption and irrigation use. A hydrogeochemical modeling was performed to identify the distribution of aqueous species responsible for the presence of some dissolved or precipitated mineral spe- cies, as well as an identification of geochemical factors responsible of superficial and groundwater quality. A canoni- cal correspondence analysis was allowed to determine if the natural environment and/or anthropogenic activities were responsible for water quality. The parameters analysed in both aquifers, as well as in the Pablillo River, were total solids, suspended solids, nitrate, and chloride; barium and mercury were present in both aquifers. As a natural influ- ence, the predominant mineral species are as following: under-saturated anhydrite (porous aquifer), over-saturated aragonite, calcite, dolomite, and gypsum (both aquifers and Pablillo River), barite and whiterite (only in fractured aq- uifer). The geochemical factors responsible for natural contamination were rock dominance (fractured aquifer), and evaporation dominance (porous aquifer, Pablillo River). On the other hand, anthropogenic activities such as changes in soil use and the presence of point (old municipal landfill, pig farms, barite deposit), and diffuse (agricultural areas, septic tanks and latrines) pollution sources had influence in the presence of contaminants such as total and fecal coli- forms, nitrates, chlorides, mercury and barium. Several control and remediation strategies should be taken into account to prevent this pollution in the future. Keywords: Fractured Aquifer; Pablillo River; Pollution Sources; Porous Aquifer; Water Quality 1. Introduction Research on groundwater quality measurement and as- sessment is increasing over time due to its scarcity and its impairment by pollution, which can affect its availabi- lity for domestic, industrial and irrigation uses 1. Stud- ies on hydrological modeling 2-5 and groundwater vul- nerability 6 are contemporary issues widely studied as well. The groundwater quality depends largely on the pre- sence of natural and/or anthropogenic pollution sources, which must be considered when planning for the devel- opment of urban centers. Several related studies have been reported in Mexico, i.e., 7 analyzed the spatial dis- tribution of groundwater hydraulic properties in the Que- retaro Valley; 8 reported a numerical analysis depicting the evolution of the hydraulic gradient in fractured rocks in Mexico City; 9 carried out a water balance and water quality assessment in the Valley of Mezquital aquifer; and 10 evaluated the impact of anthropogenic practices * Corresponding author.