A Remotely Operated Seepage Meter for Use in Large Lakes and Rivers

The many seepage meter designs presented to date are generally fragile and require direct installation by divers. On large surface-water bodies, such as the Great Lakes, storm wave size, water depth, temperature, and turbidity make these previous seepage meters ineffective. A design is presented in this paper which is heavy and sturdy enough to withstand Great Lakes storms and which can be remotely installed from the water surface. These UWM meters require stabilization on the bottom of 15 to 25 minutes before activation and must be corrected for slow settling and hydraulic inefficiency. Such correction is straightforward, and corrections are presented for sand beds. Field testing shows that corrected seepages from these meters have a maximum deviation of 33% and a standard deviation of 22% from the observed mean. The meter has had over a 90% success rate in installations throughout the Great Lakes. It does not function on rock or soft sediment.