An assessment of fluorescent tracer dyes used for groundwater tracing

Abstract

Dye tracers play an important role in hydrology and hydrological research. Tracer techniques are useful tool in understanding the water transport processes and quantifying their parameters. Fluorescent tracers are the most important of the artificial tracers because of their relatively easy handling, the seemingly simple analysis, the high sensitivity of the analysis, the low detection limit and, consequently, the small quantity of tracer needed in field experiments. The wells network has been designed at nuclear objects site in Lithuania. The network was devided into two systems. The first system difines the first semi-confined intertill aquifer with depth of 10-19 m and the second system is installed in the unconfined aquifer with depth of 4.5-9 m. The injection masses of tracer amounted to 50 and 500 mg respectively. The concentration of sodium fluorescein was measured in 1-cm quartz cuvette by using a computer-controlled Aminco Bowman luminescence spectrometer (Thermo Electron Corporation, USA). The results of these experiment indicated hydrogeological parameters.