| Investigating
the Connection of
Turquoise
Lake
and Mine Tunnel Flow in the Sugarloaf Mining District Using
Dissolved Gas Tracers
William E. Sanford
Department of Geosciences
Colorado
State
University
Abstract: The
purpose of the study is to determine if there is a hydrologic
connection between the waters of
Turquoise
Lake
and Dinero Tunnel drainage water (Sugar Loaf Mining District).
Preliminary site investigations suggest that mine
tunnels, especially the Dinero tunnel, may intersect North-South
trending faults, mineral veins, and mine audits inundated by the
lake, creating zones of preferential flow during periods of
elevated lake levels resulting from spring snowmelt.
Several intact and collapsed mine audits exist along the
south shore of
Turquoise
Lake
and are submerged during normal spring and summer lake levels.
The study will involve injecting tracers directly into
mine audits submerged by the elevated lake levels and sampling
of waters in the Dinero Tunnel.
A detection of the tracers in waters discharged at the
tunnel will confirm a connection.
Two dissolved gasses will be used as tracers, helium and
sulfur hexafluoride. Helium
gas provides a low cost, simple method of making corrections of
diffusive gas losses during transport. Sulfur hexafluoride has a
very low detection limit compared to its solubility which allows
an analysis over several orders of magnitude.
Funding Agency:
Bureau of Reclamation
#03FC601821
$15,832
|
