Technical Bulletin No. 0375: A Comparison of Reaeration Estimation Techniques for the Ouachita River Basin

This technical bulletin deals with a comparison of the hydrocarbon and radiotracer techniques on the same river reach; the latter followed the hydrocarbon study by 24 hours. The hydrocarbon tracer measurement data was provided to NCASI by the US Geological Survey, Little Rock, Arkansas. The major finding was that the hydrocarbon tracer study produced a reaeration rate considerably higher than that obtained by the radiotracer study and also selected empirical equations; the difference between the two tracer techniques was too large to be accounted for by variability in the radiotracer method.