Investigation Methods for Water Exchange Processes between Mining Lakes and Aquifers

In acidic mining lakes a main part of lake acidity can be due to groundwater inflow from oxidised dump sediments. For the assessment of restoration possibilities of sulphate rich, acid mining lakes, the interaction between the lake water and the groundwater from all hydraulic coupled aquifers must be known in detail. Several methods to measure groundwater infiltration into a lake were compared. Modelling, isotope and hydrochemical data as well as 222Rn as an environmental tracer, and additionally temperature mapping and profiling in the shallow shore zones were used to estimate the groundwater inflow and outflow at mining lak