Your local water contaminants list by zip code

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

@Randy Holmes-Farley Any feedback for those with high Chlorate levels? I found a paper that seems to indicate levels in the ppb can kill algae thru the replacement of nitrate uptake. Best I could determine was GAC could bind it to some degree, but it seems like it makes it through RO/DI.

paper for reference:

https://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/notices/assessments/2007/3385/pubs/25chlorate.pdf

chlorate should be removed by ro/di and is not a concern in a reef if you start with potable water. Why do you think it would not be driven down quite a lot?

 

[Righteous]

A couple sources online seem to indicate difficulty in removing it. The EWG site shows that it cannot be removed. Here are a few other sources.

Sec 6.2:

https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/chlorateandchlorite0505.pdf

“Currently, there is no known treatment available to remove chlorate ion once it has been formed in drinking-water.”

Sec 7.2.2:

https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/canada/health-canada/migration/healthy-canadians/publications/healthy-living-vie-saine/water-chlorite-chlorate-eau/alt/water-chlorite-chlorate-eau-eng.pdf

“Because chlorate ion is very difficult to remove from drinking water, there is no known residential-scale treatment technology available at the present time to remove it from residential tap water once it has been formed (Gallagher et al., 1994).”

Also found:

Chlorate

“Currently, no home treatment device is available to remove chlorate ion once it has been formed in drinking water. “

This discussion:

Has any work been done on removal of chlorates compared to much...

Certain industries are large contributors to emission of chlorate to water streams. How can chlorate be removed from such streams?

www.researchgate.net

“Currently, there is no known completely effective treatment available to remove chlorate ion once it has been formed in potable water.”

And some discussion of removal mechanism:

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-12/documents/810r16013.pdf#page61

 

[Righteous]

To be clear, I would previously have assumed it would be removed by an anion resin. Upon seeing the EWG site say it couldn’t be removed I started to research a bit and came across the above information. It’s still not clear to me why an anion resin wouldn’t remove it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

A couple sources online seem to indicate difficulty in removing it. The EWG site shows that it cannot be removed. Here are a few other sources.

Sec 6.2:

https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/chlorateandchlorite0505.pdf

“Currently, there is no known treatment available to remove chlorate ion once it has been formed in drinking-water.”

Sec 7.2.2:

https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/canada/health-canada/migration/healthy-canadians/publications/healthy-living-vie-saine/water-chlorite-chlorate-eau/alt/water-chlorite-chlorate-eau-eng.pdf

“Because chlorate ion is very difficult to remove from drinking water, there is no known residential-scale treatment technology available at the present time to remove it from residential tap water once it has been formed (Gallagher et al., 1994).”

Also found:

Chlorate

“Currently, no home treatment device is available to remove chlorate ion once it has been formed in drinking water. “

This discussion:

Has any work been done on removal of chlorates compared to much...

Certain industries are large contributors to emission of chlorate to water streams. How can chlorate be removed from such streams?

www.researchgate.net

“Currently, there is no known completely effective treatment available to remove chlorate ion once it has been formed in potable water.”

And some discussion of removal mechanism:

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-12/documents/810r16013.pdf#page61

Those are talking about removal from a public water supply. Ro/ di removes it and all ions.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Here’s a discussion by folks on that very topic, looking for ways to remove chlorate from water, and noting that di works, but isn’t the sort of process that can be used in treating large volumes of water like public wastewater and sewers.

Redirect Notice

 

[Righteous]

That makes a lot more sense to me. I’d imagine DI would be way too expensive on a public scale. Thanks for checking Randy.

 

[rmurken]

Folks, just so that you can put human health effects in perspective from the standpoint of tap water, you should realize that EWG's "health guideline" for a particular contaminant is somewhat suspect. EWG is an advocacy group, and wikipedia includes this statement:

"The accuracy of the EWG reports and statements have been criticized, as has its funding by the organic lobby.[2][3][4][5] Its warnings have been labeled "alarmist", "scaremongering" and "misleading". "

The general statement about popular science articles and websites about the risk of environmental contaminants is that they strongly lack perspective. Many of these contaminants noted by EWG as "potential effect: cancer" have only a theoretical link to human metastasis. Even in the case where there is no doubt about a causative link between an environmental contaminant and human cancer, such as radon exposure, the additional risk at the levels that are regulated in municipal water supplies is tiny.

To understand this point, let's examine the risk of arsenic. Arsenic is a known carcinogen, with a positive link to certain human cancers. Rice as a crop often has elevated levels of arsenic compared to other grains because of the way it's grown and the regions where it's grown. The additional risk has been extensively analyzed, and approximately speaking, the risk of the arsenic contained in rice is 39 additional cancers per million individuals in the population for someone eating rice 3 to 4 times a week, with a 90% confidence interval between 0 and 79.

On the face of it, to some in our population that sounds unacceptably risky. However, one needs to understand that the total risk of developing cancer of any type is about 390,000 out of a million. So even calculating the additional risk of a known human carcinogen is quite difficult over the "noise" in the data set.

PREACH!

Absent a very serious situation like Flint or Newark, or some other specific issue, municipal water supplies in the US (and in other developed countries) are presumptively safe for humans. As Randy pointed out, that may not mean it’s safe for a reef tank, but reef tanks are incredibly sensitive. Of all the problems and troubles we have in the (generally privileged) worlds inhabited by reefers, bad municipal water supplies is not one of them.

 

[rmurken]

i just want to give gratuitous mad props to my hometown Philadelphia Water Department. They miraculously convert the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers into really great drinking water, and water that with some Prime is fine for my FW tanks, and after RO, fine for my reef tank. I know many of the folks who run it and you could not ask for a finer set of professionals who care more about what they do, and work for less than their expertise could demand in the private sector.

There are always a few ppm of nitrate, but Philly is downriver from a lot of farms...and also Philly is just downriver (put your civil engineering hat on and figure it out). Who cares. It makes my FW plants grow and doesn’t make it out of my RODI. There’s some phosphate too—it keeps pipes from corroding and that’s unbelievably important. And again—plants and RODI. There’s chloramines, which frankly, you want unless you’re on a well. And then the usual KH and GH—moderate hardness.

Whatever. As far as I’m concerned whenever I turn the faucet on, it’s miraculous, clear nectar that pours out.

Thus endeth my paen to the Philadelphia Water Department and the sweet, sweet dew some call Schuylkill punch.

Go Eagles.

 

[Butcher333]

Chlorates may be removed by thiosulphate, bisulfite and others when irradiated with UV. I’m going to use a UV sterilizer on my new tank because I think one of the benefits might be that UV in our salt water in various ways could reduce Chlorates. In fact I think I’m going to treat my ro/di water which may contain some ammonium and Chlorates by adding a smidge of Amquel and some salt and irradiating it with UV for a day. This will be way cheaper than a 3 stage DI resin. Yep

 

[Butcher333]

Chlorates not removed by RO/DI. At levels unsafe for our tanks. I am unable to show the pick which shows this. When I post it deletes the photo.