Quantification of long-term wastewater fluxes at the surface water/groundwater-interface: An integrative model perspective using stable isotopes and acesulfame

Engelhardt, Irina; Barth, J. A. C.; Bol, Roland; Schulz, Manoj; Ternes, Thomas A.; Schüth, Christoph; Geldern, Robert van

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.06.092

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…An important question in river research is the interaction between river water and surface water within the hyporheic and riparian zones along the river course (Kanduč et al, , ; Krause, Boano, Cuthbert, Fleckenstein, & Lewandowski, ; Krause, Hannah, & Fleckenstein, ). Depending on the hydraulic system, the river can lose water to groundwater via outflow through the riverbed (Engelhardt et al, ; Winter, Harvey, Franke, & Alley, ). This situation is denoted as a losing stream.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, water from the riparian zone can feed the river, which is denoted as a gaining steam. Different environmental tracers, for example, temperature, stable isotopes, or wastewater-related pollutants, have been used to investigate these interactions in detail (Engelhardt et al, 2014;Fox, Laube, Schmidt, Fleckenstein, & Arnon, 2016). Furthermore, tributaries with differing water chemistry that mix with the main river course can also induce changes in water chemistry when these differences and fluxes are large enough to cause a measurable shift (Perrin, Jeannin, & Cornaton, 2007;Torres, Baronas, Clark, Feakins, & West, 2017).…”

Section: Downstream Geochemical Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Insights into agricultural influences and weathering processes from major ion patterns

Geldern

Schulte

Mäder

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Karst areas and their catchments pose a great challenge for protection because fast conduit flow results in low natural attenuation of anthropogenic contaminants. Studies of the hydrochemistry of karst sources and river solutes are an important tool for securing and managing water resources. A study of the geochemical downriver evolution of the Wiesent River and its tributaries, located in a typical karst terrain, revealed unexpected downstream decreases of nitrate with maximum mean values of 30 mg/L at the source to minimum values of 18 mg/L near the river mouth. This trend persisted over the length of the river even though increased agricultural activities are evident in the downstream section of the catchment. This pattern is caused by fertilizer inputs via diffusive and fast conduits flow from karst lithology in the upstream area that may have reached the river's source even from beyond the hydrological catchment boundaries. Further downstream, these influences became diluted by tributary inputs that drain subcatchments dominated by claystone and sandstone lithologies that increased potassium and sulphate concentrations. Our findings indicate that bedrock geology remains the dominant control on the major ion chemistry of the Wiesent River and that agricultural influences are strongest near the headwaters despite increased land use further downstream, due to long‐term storage and accumulation in karst aquifers. This feature may not be unique to the Wiesent River system, as carbonates cover significant portions of the Earth's surface and subsequent work in other river systems could establish whether such patterns are ubiquitous worldwide.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Downstream Geochemical Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights into agricultural influences and weathering processes from major ion patterns

Geldern

Schulte

Mäder

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They can also be used to delineate wastewater plumes from septic systems (leaching/infiltration beds) and to identify wastewater from multiple unknown sources (Robertson et al, 2013;Van Stempvoort et al, 2013). Artificial sweeteners have also been used to monitor water fluxes and exchange processes in the hyporheic and riparian zones, where wastewater-loaded surface water interacts with an adjacent aquifer (Engelhardt et al, 2014), or where polluted groundwater discharges into a stream (Roy and Bickerton, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of river water infiltration in shallow aquifers using acesulfame and anthropogenic gadolinium

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:This study has investigated the use of the artificial sweetener acesulfame and the magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent gadolinium as quantitative tracers for river water infiltration into shallow groundwater. The influence of a river on alluvial groundwater in a subalpine catchment in western Europe has been assessed using the 'classical' hydrochemical tracer chloride and the trace contaminants acesulfame and anthropogenic gadolinium. Mixing ratios for riverine bank filtrate with ambient groundwater and the uncertainties associated with the temporal and spatial tracer variability were calculated using acesulfame and gadolinium and compared with those obtained using chloride. The temporal variability of tracer concentrations in river water of gadolinium (standard deviation SD: 63%) and acesulfame (SD: 71%) both exceeded that of chloride (SD: 27%), and this was identified as the main source of uncertainty in the mixing analysis. Similar spatial distributions were detected in the groundwater for chloride and gadolinium, but not for acesulfame. Mixing analyses using acesulfame resulted in calculated mixing ratios that differed from those obtained using gadolinium and chloride by up to 83% and 92%, respectively. At the investigated site, which had oxic conditions and moderate temperatures, acesulfame was found to be a less reliable tracer than either gadolinium or chloride, probably because of natural attenuation and input from other sources. There was no statistically significant difference between the mixing ratios obtained using chloride or gadolinium, the mixing ratios obtained using gadolinium were 40-50% lower than those obtained using chloride. This is mainly due to a bias of the mean gadolinium concentration in river water towards higher values. In view of the uncertainties of the two tracers, neither could be preferred over the other for the quantification of bank filtrate in groundwater. At this specific site gadolinium was able to reliably identify river water infiltration and was a more precise tracer than chloride at low mixing ratios (<20%), because of the exclusive occurrence of gadolinium in river water and its high dynamic range.

show abstract

“…; Engelhardt et al. ), including studies conducted in the Salt Lake Valley over a 24‐year period (1991–2015) (Thiros and Manning ; Jameel et al. ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Variability in Water Sources Controls Chemical and Physical Properties of a Semi‐arid Urban River System

Shah

Jameel

Smith

et al. 2019

J American Water Resour Assoc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We conducted synoptic surveys over three seasons in one year to evaluate the variability in water sources and geochemistry of an urban river with complex water infrastructure in the state of Utah. Using stable isotopes of river water (δ18O and δ2H) within a Bayesian mixing model framework and a separate hydrologic mass balance approach, we quantified both the proportional inputs and magnitude of discharge associated with “natural” (lake, groundwater, and tributary inputs) and “engineered” (effluent and canal inflows) sources. The relative importance of these major contributors to streamflow varied both spatially and seasonally. Spatiotemporal patterns of dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, calcium, chloride, nitrate, and orthophosphate indicated seasonal shifts in dominant sources of river water played an important role in determining water quality. We show although urban rivers are clearly influenced by novel water sources created by water infrastructure, they continue to reflect the imprint of “natural” water sources, including diffuse groundwater. Resource managers thus may need to account for the quantity of both surface waters and also historically overlooked groundwater inputs to address water quality concerns in urban rivers.

show abstract

Quantification of long-term wastewater fluxes at the surface water/groundwater-interface: An integrative model perspective using stable isotopes and acesulfame

Cited by 25 publications

References 33 publications

Insights into agricultural influences and weathering processes from major ion patterns

Insights into agricultural influences and weathering processes from major ion patterns

Quantification of river water infiltration in shallow aquifers using acesulfame and anthropogenic gadolinium

Spatiotemporal Variability in Water Sources Controls Chemical and Physical Properties of a Semi‐arid Urban River System

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About