DETERMINING THE RECHARGE WITH ENVIRONMENTAL ISOTOPES IN SANTAFE DE ANTIOQUIAAQUIFERS

The area of western Antioquia, formed by the towns of Santa Fe de Antioquia, Sopetran, San Jeronimo, Olaya and Liborina, is the most important tourist area of the department of Antioquia. Because of this, there is a strong demand for water that has increased with the increase in tourist activity prompted by the construction of the project "Connecting Road between Aburra Valley and Cauca River." Although this area has several sources of surface water, they do not fully satisfy the needs of water resources because they are contaminated by waste and leachate from farming, livestock and humans. This makes groundwater a mayor source of additional water and a great alternative to meet the growing demand. The National University of Colombia (2004) made a preliminary work which identified areas with good potential aquifers for drinking water. To build a hydrogeological model, a necessary condition for the management and optimum utilization of ground water, is to identify areas of aquifer recharge. One of the tools most widely used for this purpose are the environmental isotopes deuterium, H2 and 018. This paper presents the results of using these isotopes to determine areas of aquifer recharge the West Antioquia.