BS 3680-2C:1993

Deals with the use of chemical tracers in discharge measurements.

This part of ISO 9555 deals with the use of chemical tracers in discharge measurements by the dilution method. Apparatus and methods of general application are set out in ISO 9555-1 and are not repeated here, with the exception of those relating specifically to chemical tracers.

Chemical tracers have several advantages as follows.

1. As with fluorescent tracers, the handling of the tracer follows normal chemical laboratory practice, and no special equipment (e.g. radiation shielding) is required. Care is still required, however, when handling concentrated tracer, to avoid contamination of samples and, with some tracers, for reasons of chemical toxicity.
2. In general, chemical tracers are widely available commercially, and may be stored indefinitely.
3. Analysis may be possible using laboratory facilities currently used for water quality determination.
4. In general, chemical tracers are photochemically stable.

The disadvantages of chemical tracers are as follows:

1. Their detection limits are relatively high and therefore a larger quantity of tracer is required for each gauging than in the case of radioactive or fluorescent tracers. For practical reasons this may restrict their application to small discharges. However, for certain tracers, reconcentration techniques can permit the measurement of large discharges (of the order of 1 000 m³/s) where conditions of mixing and tracer loss are acceptable.
2. With the exception of the conductivity method for sodium choride, the determination ranges of laboratory analysis methods are limited, so dilution of river samples may be necessary before analysis. This limitation means that the constant-rate injection method is preferable for chemical tracers (excepting tile conductivity method) since determination of the peak concentrations resulting from a sudden injection would be difficult.
3. Natural background levels, particularly of conductivity (resulting from dissolved solids in natural waters), may be high and variable, and this necessitates the use of a larger amount of tracer than would be apparent from a consideration of detection limits only.