ABSTRACT
An approach was developed and tested to track the subsurface movement of water infiltrated from a recharge basin. Conservative isotope tracers (18O/16O and 3H/3He) and selected chemical water quality parameters were monitored to differentiate between waters of different sources. A preliminary evaluation of the method was conducted at a field site in Orange County, California, USA. The isotopic results were used as conservative tracers to validate conservative and non-conservative transport of the water quality constituents. In particular sulfate, nitrate and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) concentrations resulted in estimated travel times to wells, however, only sulfate appeared to behave conservatively in this system.
