Dye Tracing Sewage Lagoon Discharge in a Sandstone Karst, Askov, Minnesota

Abstract

An investigation of the sandstone karst at Askov, Pine County, Minnesota was conducted utilizing fluorescent dye tracing techniques. Connections were documented between the effluent from WWTF lagoons discharged into a sinking stream and local residential water supply wells southwest of the stream sink, over kilometer-scale distances. The apparent velocity of dye from the steam sink to the residential well was 57 m/day, much faster than would be expected for porous-media flow in a sandstone but slower than expected for well-developed conduit karst in carbonate rock. The traces also document stage-dependent, divergent flow to the northeast and west from recharge to a sinkhole adjacent to the lagoons. A well-developed conduit system extends a few hundred meters under the northern portion of the lagoons with flow velocities greater than 128 m/day to the northeast. A slower flow system extends for at least a kilometer to the west and northwest with a range of apparent flow velocities that average about 9 m/day. The slower flow system reached a broad “fan” of residential wells to the west but was not detected in other wells in the same direction.