Drinking Water Quality in Delta and Non-Delta Counties along the Mississippi River

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper compares the quality of groundwater between the delta and non-delta counties of the Mississippi River. To assess whether drinking water is the cause of the generally poorer health of the population living in the delta area. For the comparison, a large number of analyses are used, on a large number of wells, but the data refer to only one year, which should certainly be additionally highlighted in the summary or introduction of the paper.

The paper is well structured, only the titles of the discussion and conclusion chapters are omitted, so they just need to be added. The goal and hypothesis are clearly set, and the paper is easy to follow and read. In the discussion, limitations that could affect the results were mentioned and future research that should be done in order to further investigate this topic was suggested.

Considering the importance of water resources used for drinking water, which are under great threat today due to human activities, as well as climate changes that put an additional burden on this vital water resource, I believe that this work is worth publishing.

I have a remark regarding the results shown in the text. They should be harmonized with the values ​​shown in the tables in the supplementary materials. I ask the authors to check in detail all the results given in the text.

Other comments can be found in the attached PDF document.

General comments:

Abstract and Introduction chapters are well structured and clearly present the paper.

Methods

Well structured, only the period of data used for analyses should be explained better.

Results

Please check and correct all values to be in line with the tables provided in Supl,ementary materials.

Discussion

Missing title.

Conclusions

Missing title.

Figures

 

Please check the figures, in the PDF document I downloaded, figures 1 nnd 2 are overlapping and the title is not visible.

Specific comments:

 

Additional comments are in the attached pdf file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This work presents a statistical analysis to determine significant differences in water quality among delta and non-delta counties. For this reason, the Geochemical Database for the National Brackish Groundwater Assessment of the United States, an open-access database, has been used.

The dataset includes measurement results from 1901-2013, which have not been updated for over a decade. This means that this dataset may not reflect the current water quality situation.

Moreover, although the data has been analyzed statistically, the results have not been discussed for any potential significant action. Accordingly, this reviewer, could not find the work significant enough to be recommended for publication.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Were the states located in the Mississippi delta region selected according to distance (distance-proximity)? Or according to the topography of the region?

 

Why was only groundwater quality examined in the study? If there was no study in the region, surface water could have been examined as well.

 

The reference section should be checked according to the journal rules. Also, attention should be paid to unit notations.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors' responses to the raised concerns were convincing. The work can be recommended for publication. Please make sure that all graphs are visible and in the right position.