Application of activated carbon bugs to the dye tracer study in a Karst area

Studies were performed on evaluating the applicability of activated carbon bugs on dye tracer tests as tracer detectors by using its adsorption isotherm of the grained activated carbon. We preliminary conducted several standard adsorption and extraction tests and obtained the relationship between standard dye solution and detected concentrations from activated carbon samples in dry and wet conditions. the slopes of the regression line were 0.71 for wet condition and 0.74 for dried one. Field dye tracer tests were performed in a karst area, where several faults occur along a stream and pass the test area. We sampled water samples and activated carbon samples at three points in Hwangji Pond, where groundwater outflows from the karst conduit. According to the results of breakthrough curve analysis, the regional flow along the conduit, which is assumed to cause a karst conduit, was estimated as 0.18 m/day. The relationship between the concentrations of water sample and extracted activated carbon bugs shows the similar slopes with those from standard solution tests. This suggests that activated carbon could be useful as a dye tracer detector because the extraced concentration can be quantified.