Tracing Ground‐Water Movement in Abandoned Coal Mined Aquifers Using Fluorescent Dyes

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Abstract
In shallow, essentially free‐draining abandoned coal mine workings, quantitative ground‐water tracing using the orange fluorescent dye Sulpho Rhodamine B (CI 45100) provides a powerful hydrogeological tool for determining ground‐water flow regimes. However, this is not the case in deep, confined, abandoned coal mine workings where various dyes exhibit a nonconservative behavior due to adsorption onto ferric hydroxide deposits. This is a more significant problem than that of the effects of pH or acidity on fluorescence. Laboratory tests indicate that dyes with sulphonic functional groups should be selected in such situations and that dye concentrations need to be maintained at the highest level commensurate with aesthetic and toxicological conditions.