Exploration of Hydrogeochemical Characterization and Assessment of Organic Pollution Characteristics of Shallow Groundwater near a Chemical Plant That Discharged Sewage Illegally

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Abstract - ok

Introduction

• line 75 requires reference
• line 78 - 79 need to rephrase in a more scientific manner
• line 81 should be deleted or move to study area section
• suggest to add recent article on physicochemical of GW - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094562

Methods and Materials

• point of samples taken Z6, Z34 (why Z? how much points was taken? what is the number represent for)..should be explained
• how do authors measure the depth? 30 m or 5 m?
• The equations are misaligned, please use mathtype

Graph - ok

Figure 8 -11 - suggest to use different colour/symbol as it was a different compound

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Editor.

Sustainability-1499276- "Exploration of hydrogeochemical characterization and assessment of organic pollution characteristics of shallow groundwater near a chemical plant that discharged sewage illegally"

Generally, this paper is good to be published in Sustainability.

Major corrections should be done.

• The English of the paper should be checked because some parts are confusing and difficult to understand.
• The relation between the pollutant type and its source (landuse) should be clearer.
• Lines 115-116, elevations should be related to sea level.
• Lines 118-135, this paragraph is confusing, it should be rewritten and geologic map should be given for understanding the area. Many beds and thicknesses are mentioned and authors did not mention weather these sedimentary facies are arranged in lateral change or in vertical succession.
• Legend of Fig. 1. is not representative for all the features included on the map.
• Lines 148-149, what is the meaning of stratified sampling.
• Classification shown in Table 1 should represented in Fig.1.
• Lines 192-193, 10% CBE is too large, the standard one is less than 5%.
• A map shows the spatial variability in groundwater salinity should be included to be able to compare with the landuse map.
• In part 4.3., Correlation analysis, authors should explain the relation between Na and the other elements and why it is low correlated to Cl compared to Ca and Mg.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors did good effort to modify the manuscript.