The composition of groundwater reclaimed from tertiarysoil aquifer treatment systems reflects the dynamic processestaking place in the subsurface, between the infiltrationbasin and the production wells. At the end of year 2000,following more than a decade of operation, high Mnconcentrations (2
mol L
-1 Mn
40
mol L
-1) appearedin the reclaimed effluents of the Dan Region SewageReclamation Project (Shafdan), Israel. A mass balanceindicates that the high Mn excess originated from the aquiferrocks, most likely following reduction of sedimentary Mn-oxides under suboxic conditions. The subsequentadsorption of the Mn
2+ results in a slow Mn
2+ front thatadvances in the direction of groundwater flow only when allthe Mn
2+ exchangeable sites are saturated. A retardationfactor obtained from two independent estimates basedon a simple reduction-adsorption-advection model yieldsa value of about 10. This explains the delayed appearanceof the high Mn concentrations at a distance of only~500 m from the infiltration basin.