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Tracing Artificially Recharged Groundwater using Water and Carbon Isotopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2016

Junior G Mazariegos ,
Jennifer C Walker ,
Xiaomei Xu  and
Claudia I Czimczik
Junior G Mazariegos
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science & W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697-3100, USA
Jennifer C Walker*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science & W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697-3100, USA
Xiaomei Xu
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science & W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697-3100, USA
Claudia I Czimczik
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science & W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697-3100, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: jclehman@uci.edu.
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Abstract

We conducted an isotopic analysis of groundwater in Orange County, California, USA, around the Talbert Seawater Injection Barrier to determine if recycled water, used to artificially recharge local aquifers, carries a unique isotopic signature that can be used as a tracer. From September 2014 to April 2015, we collected groundwater from six privately owned wells within the coastal groundwater basin, along with various surface waters. All water samples were analyzed for their stable isotopic composition (δ18O, δD), the δ13C and 14C signature of the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) pool, DIC concentration, pH, and salinity. The DIC of groundwater mixing with recycled water is enriched in 14C above natural background levels, with varying signal strength through time, depleted in δ13C, and low in DIC concentration. Water isotopes further suggest that recycled water is a mixture of Colorado River water and regional groundwater. In contrast, groundwater found further away from the injection barrier has carbon and water isotope composition consistent with regional groundwater and Santa Ana River water. Our findings imply that recycled water injected through the Talbert Barrier is isotopically unique, and that 14C enrichment may be used as an intrinsic tracer of artificial recharge within the basin.

Keywords

aquiferrecycled waterreplenished waterradiocarbon
Type
14C as a Tracer of Past or Present Continental Environment
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 2: Proceedings of the 22nd International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2) , April 2017 , pp. 407 - 421
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 2015 Radiocarbon Conference, Dakar, Senegal, 16–20 November 2015

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