The application of Anthropogenic Gadolinium as a tracer in ground and surface water: examples from France and the Netherlands
Résumé
Gadolinium chelates have been used since 1988 as contrasts agents in medical imaging (MRI) and produce positive anthropogenic Gd anomalies in rare element shale normalized patterns (REEnasc) of river and lake waters. Both in the Netherlands and France the presence of a positive Gd anomaly in surface and groundwater is used as a common tool in complex surface-surface and surface-groundwater studies. In this poster 3 examples of this common practice are given. The "Ile du Chambon" catchment (100 ha) is located in the Allier Valley, within Oligocene alluvial formations (sand and gravel). The nitrate content in the wells of the drinking water supply is ≥ 50 mg/l and two sources for the origin of the nitrates are hypothesized: agriculture or wastewater from a waste water treatment plant. Widory et al. (2005), using a coupled chemical (Cl and NO3) and isotopic (nitrogen and boron) approach, could show that the wastewater was the main source of the nitrate pollution. The presence of a Gd anomaly in the shale normalized rare earth patterns of wells contaminated by the waste water confirms the findings of Widory et al. (2005). In the second case the Gd anomaly is used to follow the infiltration of river water into a small lake in the Netherlands. During dry periods in this small river, Meuse water with a distinct Gd anomaly is fed into this river. The REE were monitored in the river, in a piezometer installed in the dike between the river and the lake and in the lake before, during and after the Meuse water was fed into this river. With the time series analyses the infiltration of the Meuse water into the dike and the small lake could be clearly followed. In a third case, in the center of the Netherlands, the flow of inlet Meuse water with a distinct Gd anomaly into a polder and subsequently from the larger into the smaller ditches of this polder were followed by analyzing the REEs. In such dry periods the ditches in the polder are also fed by groundwater that does not contain a Gd anomaly. The results of this survey show no Gd anomaly in the smallest ditches indicating that the infiltrating Meuse water does not reach these smallest ditches, which was assumed in the existing conceptual models.