Ra-224 and Ra-226: A New Method for Measuring Groundwater Seepage in Lake Michigan

Radium isotopes have been used to estimate groundwater discharge (GWD) in coastal marine waters for decades, but this technique has never before been used in the Laurentian Great Lakes. In this study, we used a RAD7 radon-in-air monitor to measure naturally-occurring radium isotopes Ra-224 (half-life= 3.64 d) and Ra-226 (half-life = 1600 a) in groundwater and three shallow water sites along Lake Michigan's Wisconsin coastline. Radium-224 activities in groundwater ranged from 1153 dpm m-3 in a deep aquifer (New Berlin well no.7) to 31 dpm m-3 in a shallow aquifer (Pryor well). Nearshore Lake Michigan measurements of Ra-224 were lowest at Red Arrow Beach (0.2 dpm m-3), higher in the Milwaukee harbor (GLWI slip, 1.1 dpm m-3) and highest at Harrington Beach (4.1 dpm m-3) and correspond well with groundwater seepage estimates made by Cherkauer et al. (1990) using alternate methods (i.e., where higher radium activity is indicative of higher GWD). These Ra-224 measurements are the first ever made in Lake Michigan (and presumably any of the Great Lakes) and we conclude that, by sampling offshore radium activity gradients, this RAD7 technique is a viable method for directly measuring GWD in Lake Michigan and other freshwater systems.