Hello all,

I have a rather naive question to ask everyone today.  Has anyone ever used
18O enriched or depleted water as a conservative tracer for field injection
experiments into aquifers?  We are performing a Br- tracer injection
experiment into a sandy aquifer and concerns about Br- reactivity with
Fe-Al oxyhydroxides
has us looking for another conservative tracer.  My one concern about
attempting to use the del18O of water is the potential of oxygen isotope
exchange with soil CO2?  Our injection zone is 5 meters below the water
table, we will be sampling over a horizontal distance of 7 meters, and our
forced gradient ground water velocity will be 1 meter/day.  We will be
injecting about 2000 liters in 12 hours and then monitor the plume for
about a week.  It seems feasible, but I wonder if I'm missing something
obvious (like where do I get 2000 liters of isotopic distinct H2O, drive to
Alaska and bring back a lorrie load of snow?).  As always, any advice or
relevant citations would be most
appreciated.

Many thanks, TC Onstott

I HAVE A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS
T.C. Onstott
Dept. of Geosciences
Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
Ph: 609-258-1622
FX: 609-258-1274
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Check out our website at http://geo.princeton.edu/geomicrobio