Chlorofluorocarbon apparent ages of groundwaters from west Hawaii, USA

- We use CFCs to establish relatively young ages for groundwater from West Hawaii.
- We use oxygen and hydrogen isotopes of groundwater to establish recharge areas.
- CFC tracers can distinguish groundwater from different aquifers.
- Fog drip likely contributes to aquifer recharge.
- The quantity and quality of groundwater will likely change over the next 30+ years.

SummaryThe volcanic coastal aquifers of west Hawaii supply drinking water to the area's residents and nutrient-rich groundwater discharge to the nearby oligotrophic coastal waters. Despite the societal and ecological importance of the water in these aquifers, very little is known about the ages and recharge areas of the groundwater. We therefore determined aquifer recharge areas and groundwater residence times by sampling 18 locations for the oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition of groundwater and chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) apparent groundwater ages. We sampled water supply wells, coastal wells, and coastal ponds. We applied a δ18O/altitude gradient and well-established lapse rates to find that groundwater recharge predominantly occurs in the area's maximum rainfall zone. Furthermore, the isotopic data suggest that fog drip contributes to aquifer recharge. A single-water source model yielded recharge years ranging from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s for ten samples (56% of samples). Alternatively, a simple binary mixing model, with one water source recharging before1940 and the other after 1940, indicated that 14 samples (78% of samples) contained young water that recharged the aquifer between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. We also find that CFCs can be used to distinguish between water originating from different aquifers in the area.