Nitrates
in Drinking Water
Nick
Jaeschke
This map illustrates aquifers vulnerability to nitrates, a
compound of nitrogen and oxygen that, in great quantities, can be
dangerous.
Image
URL:http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/nitrates1.png
Summary
Nitrate is a compound consisting of one nitrogen atom and three
oxygen atoms. The compound is colorless, odorless, and tasteless.
Nitrate has recently been found in water supplies in Colorado. Its
MCL is 10 mg/L. Consuming great quantities of nitrates can cause
methemoglobinemia. This diseases replaces the hemoglobin, the element
in your blood that transports oxygen around your body, with less
efficient methemoglobin. This can lead to damage in vital tissue. For
most people, consuming nitrates is not that big of a deal, but it can
be very bad for babies, since older people have many enzymes that
convert methemoglobin back into hemoglobin, while babies have little
to none. For livestock, great levels of nitrate can lead to nitrate
poisoning in ruminant animals such as cattle and sheep. Once nitrates
are in a water supply there are four different ways one can remove
it: distillation, boiling the water to leave the minerals behind;
reverse osmosis, water is forced through a membrane that filters out
nitrates; ion-exchange, replacing the nitrate with another substance
such as chlorine; and blending, mixing pure and impure water to lower
the concentration levels.
Opinion/Reflection
I was surprised that this form of nitrogen could be so potent. I knew
that nitrogen is needed to make new DNA, and that living things can
only use specific nitrogen, nitrite. Nitrate is atmospheric nitrogen,
and has that triple bond that nitrogen fixing bacteria need to break,
but it is unbelievable how much of a difference that one bond makes.
I was also interested by the means of removal. Only distillation and
reverse osmosis actually remove the nitrates. Ion-exchange only
changes the contaminant, and blending just lowers the concentration
to safer levels.
Questions
1) The article was written by Chicago citizens. Do significant
amounts of nitrate appear in our water supplies? If not, why?
2) Is the presence of nitrates in a water supply an extreme problem?
Is the substance that dangerous? Why or why not?
3) Is “blending” safe? Is it ethical? Would you drink water if
you knew it was “blended”?
Article Information
Title: Nitrates in Drinking Water
Authors: J.R. Self and R.M. Waskom
Publication Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2013
URL: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/crops/00517.html
In order to expand on this topic, I went on the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) website and found their info section on nitrates. The page tells you, in the simplest terms, the good and bad effects of nitrates, the specific regulations, and more specifically explains how it gets into our drinking water. A video may have been helpful to expand on this topic, but I found it refreshing to look at this website. It has a question-and-answer layout that makes it very simple to understand. Here is the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/nitrate.cfm
If this page doesn't explain enough, then here is a video from YouTube that explains how adding nitrates to food and water can either be helpful or detrimental. It's short and sweet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7zTJ5LnO1E
It's really intriguing how dangerous the nitrates are once they get into our system, yet how little publicity it is receiving. If someone were to dump medication into a water supply and contaminate it with the nitrates, it could be potentially lethal to a large community, since the maximum contaminant level is only 10 milligrams per liter. Another thing, in regards to the picture, it is astonishing how high the levels of nitrogen input there is in the middle of the United States. As long as this picture is still accurate to today's measurements, I'd think that there would be a larger news story on this topic and why it needs to be dealt with immediately. The reason I think that it doesn't receive much attention is because it isn't has interesting as any of the recent tragedies or any other incidents that might pique someone's curiosity.
ReplyDeleteNew Questions---
1.)Since nitrates are approved medication for chest pain, would it have the same affect on the patients?
2.)Are there any other contaminants in the United States water that we don't know much about?
3.)Does the Chicago legislature plan to take any action? What are their plans, if any?
2) Is the presence of nitrates in a water supply an extreme problem? Is the substance that dangerous? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: I believe that the nitrates in peoples' water sources is a very bad problem because it can cause many problems throughout the human body. Especially since babies can be put in danger with their lack of defense towards nitrates.
3) Is “blending” safe? Is it ethical? Would you drink water if you knew it was “blended”?
Answer: I do not think that blending is necessarily the right thing to do. If they are blending pure and impure water, I don't see why they can't just use the pure water in peoples' drinking water, rather than blending it and making it less safe.
2.)Are there any other contaminants in the United States water that we don't know much about?
Answer: Yes, i believe there are. For example, my blog was about the pollution in water coming from nuclear plants and some factories. I didn't know anything about that before reading the article, and I think there could be many other contaminates that nobody knows about.
I decided to e-mail J. R. Self, one of the writers of the fact sheet referenced in the post. He is also the manager of the Soil, Water, and Plant Testing Lab at Colorado State University, and has a Ph. D. in his field. I also thought he was a good choice because of the many other works he has published on similar topics.
ReplyDeleteCopy of e-mail:
Hello! This year, our Environmental Science class is doing a blog covering topics related to the environment. Recently, one of my classmates read about nitrates in our drinking water and wrote a post about it. We would be interested in learning more about the topic, and would be very grateful if you could comment on our blog. Thank you for your time!
Here is the link to the post: http://grass-heads.blogspot.com/2013/04/blog-post-9-nick-jaeschke.html
Sincerely,
The Grass-Heads Blog Group