Identification of an underground salt pollution source in the Coastal Plain Aquifer of Israel

The salinity increase in the Israeli Coastal Plain Aquifer involves formation of several saline plumes. Geochemical analysis of Boron isotopes composition suggests that the salinity source is neither the unsaturated zone nor sea water intrusion. The objective of the current study was to examine the hypothesis that the aquifer salinity major source is at the bottom of the aquifer floor. The hypothesis was examined by a new inverse problem model which is based on the Galerkin finite element method. Preliminary results are presented in which the source term was calculated around the Be'er Tuvia region as a function of time and space.