Iowa cities remove nitrates, recycle in rivers

DES MOINES — Most of the water-treatment departments that remove nitrates from Iowans’ drinking water dump the chemical back into the water supply, so other cities downstream have to remove it again.

The law sets a safe level for nitrates in drinking water, but it doesn’t dictate what must be done with nitrates after they are removed, the Des Moines Register reported Sunday.

“Des Moines Water Works customers like me have to pay a lot more to take nitrates out. When they put the nitrates back into the water, then it potentially costs cities downstream, like Ottumwa, a lot of money,” Seaman said. “It’s a cycle.

Source: Iowa.com

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Why Chloramines?

by Hardly Waite

One of the more puzzling issues to the public is the change from chlorine to chloramines as the disinfectant in public water supplies. When a city changes to chloramines, there is usually significant controversy.  A switch to chloramine is seldom met with approval.  What is lost in the discussion, often, is the reason for the change.  The most frequent cause is the city’s effort to meet federal standards for trihalomethane (THM).

The following town board meeting was reprinted in Water Efficiency.  It illustrates well the dilemma that small cities face when their THM levels get out of control. It is a write-up of a town board meeting that took place in March 2014 in Ulysses, NY, in New York’s Finger Lakes region.  It does a good job of explaining how THM is created, while looking at what makes this small town water system vulnerable. It also underlines the challenges of coordinating among different water districts and residents.  What is really interesting is that the most frequent THM solution–the switch from chlorine to chloramine as the disinfectant–was not mentioned.

At the Ulysses regular town board meeting on Tuesday, Town Supervisor Liz Thomas reported on options to eliminate a buildup of trihalomethane, found in the town’s water source three times. “When the system went in it never had any problem, until 2012 in August there was one reading of 80 parts per million,” Thomas said. Bolton Point tests the water quarterly for contaminants.

Trihalomethane, THM, is a chemical compound usually found in industry refrigerants or solvents. THM forms in water systems when chlorine reacts to organic matter, which had settled on the bottom of water pipes, Thomas said. The Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum allowable level of THM in water is 80 parts per million. Bolton Point reported three readings equal or higher than the maximum allowable level. One of these readings was in 2012; in August and October 2013 the elevated THM levels showed up again.

The four water districts in the Town of Ulysses service 203  residents [let’s assume this is a misprint–Ed.] within the town’s borders. According to the EPA, “Some people who drink water containing total trihalomethanes in excess of the limit over many years could experience liver, kidney, or central nervous system problems and increased risk of cancer.”

“When water gets warmer, organic matter and chlorine react and create a byproduct (THM). We found this happened at Van Dorn Corners Road. The highest traces were found while testing in August and October of last year,” Thomas said. “Of course the first course of action we took was to warn all residents because this byproduct is volatile.”

THM found in the town’s water supply is a result of low water usage. In attempt to clear up the low water usage problem, in October 2013 the town flushed the water pipes to clear out the organic matter. Hunt Engineers reported the flushing did not fix the problem and may have further agitated the organic matter and chlorine. The next reading, in December, found the THM levels at allowable limits.

“I said ‘let’s pretend we have an eraser and could erase all of the municipality lines.’ This way we could figure out what’s best for all of the people here. I really want to emphasize looking at this from a bigger picture,” Thomas said.

Thomas sat down with Bolton Point Municipal Water System, the Town of Ithaca, the Village of Trumansburg, and the Tompkins County Department of Health Department to discuss the possibility of distributing the cost of a $100,000 for a water aerator. A water aerator increases the oxygen saturation in water, which in turn releases volatile elements from the water into the air.

“I brought up splitting the cost of the mixer with Ithaca, the department of health, the village, town and Bolton Point looking for solutions as a unified group instead of us alone. Ithaca didn’t seem very interested in the idea though,” Thomas said.

Thomas also suggested a plan to connect the village and town’s water sources at Cold Springs Road and Podunk Road. Thomas also suggested connecting the town’s water source in with the village’s second source.

“We may need a water tank to connect the village with Jacksonville, which would be an additional cost but I’m not totally sure that’s necessary,” Thomas said.

The board agreed further consideration and discussion of all options is necessary before any plans are made.

 

Source of town meeting notes: Water Efficiency.

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TDS

by Gene Franks

TDS stands for “Total Dissolved Solids.”  Solids might also be called dissolved minerals, ionic species, or salts. TDS is usually measured in ppm (parts per million) or mg/L (milligrams per liter), which are essentially the same.  TDS is, in short, a measurement of all the dissolved mineral content of the water. A test for TDS does not measure chemicals or pathogens; a low TDS count does not mean that water is safe to drink.

TDS is measured often by laboratories with a conductivity meter, which quantifies the water’s ability to conduct electricity. The higher the mineral content, the better it conducts electricity. For more practical purposes, a TDS meter, which works on the same principle, is used. Conductivity is read in micromhos per centimeter. The familiar TDS meter, an inexpensive and very handy tool, converts conductivity to ppm TDS for convenience.

 The TDS Tester is an effective tool that gives an instant reading of any water. Just turn it on and insert the bottom part of the tester into the water. More information.

There is often confusion about TDS meters and what the readings mean. TDS meters measure the performance of reverse osmosis units, distillers, and deionizers, but except for limited use by professionals, they do not measure the performance of filters or water softeners. Softeners and filters do not affect TDS readings significantly. A softener, to illustrate, removes calcium and magnesium ions but the TDS reading will not be affected significantly because the softener adds a more-or-less equal amount of sodium in exchange. The TDS reading of softened water is usually slightly higher than the TDS of the untreated water. You need a hardness test to judge softener performance, not a TDS meter. Filters, especially when they are new, usually add TDS (the phenomenon is called “TDS throw”). Likewise, the performance of softener alternatives, either tank-style or electronic, cannot be measured by a TDS meter.

Classifying Water by TDS

Although other TDS classifications  may differ slightly, here is a good basic TDS breakdown from a publication of the Water Quality Association of America:

Note that in standard usage these classifications are applied loosely. “Brine,” is used in water treatment for the salty water used to regenerate a softener or for the reject water from a reverse osmosis unit. In the case of the RO unit, the “brine” (a.k.a. “concentrate”) could be less than 50 mg/L in TDS. And although the song says that the moon was bright and shiny out on the briney,  even sea water doesn’t technically qualify as brine. Similarly, saline often means any salty solution,  and brackish is often used just to mean really bad water without specific reference to its TDS.

The EPA suggests an upper TDS limit for drinking water of 500, although many cities exceed this limit without dire consequences. For residential water use, when water gets above 1,000 TDS it is starting to border on being unusable, although some well owners grit their teeth and put up with problems like badly stained fixtures, stopped up plumbing, or water so high in sodium that it isn’t good for plants. Actually fairly high TDS water can be usable but it isn’t pleasant to deal with.

Hardness does not always result from high TDS. In our area in Texas, for example, much of the well water is high in sodium but naturally soft. If water has a TDS of 600 and a hardness reading of 2 grains (about 35 ppm), you can be virtually certain that it has a lot of sodium in it. If the high TDS consists mainly of calcium and magnesium (the hardness minerals), it can be softened, but the resulting water will be high in sodium.

Treating High and Low TDS

Treating low TDS is not common, but it can be done by using filters with a sacrificial medium like calcite. As water passes through the filter, it dissolves some mineral content and the TDS goes up. This can be done for point of entry (whole house) or point of use (drinking water only) applications. Small filters are now often used to “remineralize” reverse osmosis water. Minerals are dissolved by the low TDS water passing through the filter, raising the TDS count.

Lowering TDS is done by reverse osmosis, the most common method used in residential settings, distillation, or deionization. Reverse osmosis reduces TDS 90%+ (99% for larger, high pressure units), while distillation and DI (deionization) units can reduce TDS to a zero meter showing. Filters do not reduce TDS, not even the extremely tight ones.

Practical TDS Tips for Residential RO Users

The main use for a handheld TDS tester is to verify the performance of your RO unit’s membrane. While TDS is not in itself a targeted “contaminant” like lead, arsenic, or nitrates, the TDS meter verifies the health of the RO membrane. If the RO unit is reducing dissolved solids by 90%, you can be sure it’s also doing a good job on aluminum and fluoride.

The purpose of the TDS test is to tell you when to change your membrane. If you have an excellent TDS reading, that does not mean you don’t need to change your filter cartridges. The membrane should be changed on need—as indicated by the TDS test—but cartridges are changed on time. In fact, keeping the cartridges fresh is the best way to protect your membrane.

The worst time to do a TDS test is immediately after changing your filter cartridges. The new carbon postfilter will produce a “TDS throw” that will make your TDS reading high. Take a TDS test before you change your cartridges. The same principle applies to new RO units. You won’t get a reliable TDS test until the unit is a couple of weeks old. If you want to test shortly after installation, take loose the tube going into the storage tank and take your sample there—before the water goes through the post filter.

An acceptable TDS reading is a matter of personal preference. On our residential RO units, we usually change membranes when the unit consistently fails to reduce TDS by 85% or so.

To determine this, test first the tap water from the faucet, then compare it with the water coming out of the RO unit. This is called “% rejection,” and the formula is TDS of tap water minus TDS of RO water divided by TDS of tap water times 100. To illustrate, our local tap water usually runs around 180 TDS. So, if we test an RO system that shows a TDS reading of 15, the arithmetic would be 180 minus 15 = 165 divided by 180 = around 9.16 X 100 = about 92% rejection.

That’s fine.

The best advice is don’t obsess over TDS readings from a home unit. TDS is somewhat fickle and can be changed by variables like water pressure and the amount of water being used. Don’t be too quick to change a membrane if you get one bad test.

Dried up: Poverty in America’s drought lands

Earth may have underground ‘ocean’ three times that on surface

Scientists say rock layer hundreds of miles down holds vast amount of water, opening up new theories on how planet formed

by Melissa Davey

After decades of searching scientists have discovered that a vast reservoir of water, enough to fill the Earth’s oceans three times over, may be trapped hundreds of miles beneath the surface, potentially transforming our understanding of how the planet was formed.

The water is locked up in a mineral called ringwoodite about 660km (400 miles) beneath the crust of the Earth, researchers say. Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen from Northwestern University in the US co-authored the study published in the journal Science and said the discovery suggested Earth’s water may have come from within, driven to the surface by geological activity, rather than being deposited by icy comets hitting the forming planet as held by the prevailing theories.

“Geological processes on the Earth’s surface, such as earthquakes or erupting volcanoes, are an expression of what is going on inside the Earth, out of our sight,” Jacobsen said.

“I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades.”

Jacobsen and his colleagues are the first to provide direct evidence that there may be water in an area of the Earth’s mantle known as the transition zone. They based their findings on a study of a vast underground region extending across most of the interior of the US.

Ringwoodite acts like a sponge due to a crystal structure that makes it attract hydrogen and trap water.

If just 1% of the weight of mantle rock located in the transition zone was water it would be equivalent to nearly three times the amount of water in our oceans, Jacobsen said.

The study used data from the USArray, a network of seismometers across the US that measure the vibrations of earthquakes, combined with Jacobsen’s lab experiments on rocks simulating the high pressures found more than 600km underground.

It produced evidence that melting and movement of rock in the transition zone – hundreds of kilometres down, between the upper and lower mantles – led to a process where water could become fused and trapped in the rock.

The discovery is remarkable because most melting in the mantle was previously thought to occur at a much shallower distance, about 80km below the Earth’s surface.

Jacobsen told the New Scientist that the hidden water might also act as a buffer for the oceans on the surface, explaining why they have stayed the same size for millions of years. “If [the stored water] wasn’t there, it would be on the surface of the Earth, and mountaintops would be the only land poking out,” he said.

Source:  The Guardian.

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By Joseph Castro

Melted plastic trash on beaches can sometimes mix with sediment, basaltic lava fragments and organic debris (such as shells) to produce a new type of rock material, new research shows.

Plastiglomerate.  Click picture for larger view.

The new material, dubbed plastiglomerate, will forever remain in Earth’s rock record, and in the future may serve as a geological marker for humankind’s impact on the planet, researchers say.

Plastic pollution is a worldwide problem affecting every waterway, sea and ocean in the world, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. First produced in the 1950s, plastic doesn’t break down easily and is estimated to persist in the environment for hundreds to thousands of years. Plastic debris is also lightweight, allowing it to avoid being buried and becoming a part of the permanent geological record.

But while at Hawaii’s Kamilo Beach, Capt. Charles Moore, an oceanographer with the Algalita Marine Research Institute in California, found that plastic, if melted, can actually become one with rocks, sediment and other geologic materials. [See Images of the Plastiglomerate Rock at Kamilo]

“He found some plastic had been melted to rocks, and other pieces of natural material had also been stuck on it,” said study lead author Patricia Corcoran, a geologist at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in Canada. “He didn’t know what to call it. It’s possible other people have found [the plastic conglomerates] at other locations before Captain Moore did, but nobody had thought to report it or identify it.”

Corcoran attended a presentation Moore gave about his find, and she became immediately interested in investigating the material. So she, along with Moore and Kelly Jazvac, a visual artist at UWO, headed to Kamilo Beach to analyze the plastic formations.

A human origin

Kamilo Beach, located on the southeastern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii, is often considered to be one of the dirtiest beaches in the world. Because of the current flow and high wave energy of the area, the beach is covered with plastic debris pulled in from the ocean, including fishing gear, food and drink containers and multicolored plastic fragments called “plastic confetti.”

The researchers discovered there are two types of plastiglomerates at Kamilo Beach: In situ and clastic.

In situ plastiglomerate is more rare than the clastic variety, and forms when “plastic melts on rock and becomes incorporated into the rock outcrop,” Corcoran told Live Science, adding that the melted plastic can also get into the rock vesicles, or cavities. Clastic plastiglomerates, on the other hand, are loose rocky structures, composed of a combination of basalt, coral, shells, woody debris and sand that have been glued together by melted plastic.

When Moore first discovered Kamilo Beach’s plastiglomerates, he hypothesized that molten lava had melted the plastic to create the new rock. However, the researchers found that lava had not flowed in that area since before plastics were first invented.

After digging further into the mystery and talking with locals, the researchers concluded that people inadvertently created the plastiglomerates after burning plastic debris, either intentionally to try to destroy the plastic or accidentally by way of campfires.

Given this origin for the beach’s plastiglomerates, the team thinks the material could be present at a lot of other beaches around the world, particularly in areas where people camp or live.

“I would say that anywhere you have abundant plastic debris and humans, there will probably be plastiglomerates,” Corcoran said. Additionally, other locations where there is both active volcanism and beaches polluted with plastic, such as Iceland and the Canary Islands, could have lava-produced plastiglomerates, she said.

A global marker

At present, we live in the Holocene Epoch, which began nearly 12,000 years ago. In recent years, scientists have debated whether to formally identify a new geological era called the Anthropocene, which would mark the time period when human influence significantly altered Earth’s physical, chemical and biological landscape. However, scientists can’t agree when the Anthropocene should begin.

Whatever the case, there are several lines of evidence that highlight humankind’s impact on the planet.

For instance, with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, a lot of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have been pumped into the atmosphere. And even further back, the rise of agriculture some 8,000 years ago fundamentally changed land use and led to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane, as evidenced from analyses of ice cores. Additionally, soil profiles from peat bogs indicate that mining activities and the combustion of leaded gasoline have resulted in increased lead concentrations over the past 300 years, the researchers noted in their study.

With plastiglomerates, scientists now have another global marker for the Anthropocene, Corcoran said. “It definitely shows how humans have interacted with Earth’s biophysical system.”

What’s more, Corcoran and her colleagues have analyzed the clastic plastiglomerates from Kamilo Beach, and found the new material is far denser than plastic-only particles. This suggests plastiglomerates have a much greater potential to become buried and preserved in the rock record than normal plastic debris, and that future generations of scientists will be able to look into the planet’s geological record and find the plastiglomerates.

“One day in the future, people can look at this material and use it as a marker horizon to see that in around 2010, humans were polluting the planet with plastic,” Corcoran said. “But that’s not a legacy we really want.”

Source:  Live Science

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Shark meat worse than its bite

By Tony Carnie

Durban – Never mind their fearsome jaws. People are now more likely to be killed by eating shark meat rather than the other way round.

This was the warning from researchers at the Sharks International Conference in Durban, where several new studies showed increasing levels of chemical poison and toxic metals in shark meat when a growing number of the animals are targeted for human consumption.

In her presentation “Sharks may kill you… if you eat them”, Jann Gilbert of Southern Cross University in Australia said recent meat samples from at least three species of shark had levels of arsenic, mercury and other toxic compounds way above the recommended food safety levels.

Gilbert said up to 273 million sharks were killed every year around the world. While a large percentage were destined for the shark fin soup market, shark meat was also used widely for direct human consumption or indirectly in fish meal or fertiliser.

Gilbert’s study was based on toxic metals in dusky, sandbar and great white sharks in south-eastern Australia.

For instance, mercury levels in two of these predator species were 10 times higher than safety levels recommended by the Foods Standards Authority of Australia and New Zealand.

Arsenic pollution was also high, with some sharks containing arsenic concentrations significantly higher than safety recommendations.

Very high levels of arsenic had also been found in hammerhead sharks in the Mediterranean sea in a separate study.

Gilbert said her results were comparable to many other studies from around the world, which indicated that shark meat was becoming increasingly toxic and unsafe for human consumption.

While it was difficult to provide an exact guideline on safe levels for those who consumed the meat regularly, she suggested that most sharks more than 150cm long were “not likely” to be safe for consumption.

Because high mercury levels could damage the brains of developing human babies in the womb, Gilbert would not advise pregnant women to eat shark meat more than once a fortnight.

Kady Lyons, of the University of Calgary, said that apex predators such as sharks were prone to bio-accumulating and bio-magnifying man-made chemical poisons because they were at the top of the food chain, especially if they fed along the coast next to large cities and farming areas.

Some of these toxic chemicals, including DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), were also being passed on to young sharks from the fatty tissues of their mothers.

Mercury threat

Daniel Fernando, a marine biologist from Linnaeus University in Sweden, told the Durban conference that a study of manta rays and other shark-like species in Sri Lanka and China showed high concentrations of mercury and other toxic substances were above international recommendations for human consumption.

The chemicals they found came from a wide variety of human sources, such as wood preservatives, marine anti-fouling agents or insecticides.

In his keynote speech, Dr David Ebert of the Pacific Shark Research Centre in California, said sharks continued to conjure up images of large and fearsome predators with a large dorsal fin cutting through the surface of the sea.

“However, the reality is that sharks come in a variety of sizes and shapes – from the giant whale shark (the world’s largest fish) to the dwarf pygmy sharks.” – The Mercury

Source: iolscitech

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Gluten Found in Portland’s Water Supply

Authorities in Portland, Ore. have discovered detectable levels of gluten in the city’s water supply, causing a citywide panic.

The city’s water bureau discovered the contamination yesterday and is desperately trying to find out how gluten got into the water. A preliminary report found that the contamination may have occurred “at least eight or nine months ago” when a child dropped a loaf of bread into a local river.

Officials have declared a state of emergency and plan to drain all of the city’s reservoirs. The mayor has also deployed city’s spiritual and wellness counselors to provide relief to beleaguered residents who drank the gluten-contaminated water.

“I haven’t seen anything like this since the Tofu Crisis of ‘08, when we discovered that the Pacific Northwest’s entire supply of tofu had been prepared alongside bacon,” said city engineer Bryce Shivers. “I imagine we’re going to be seeing the disastrous effects of this on the city for decades, like higher rates of obesity, cancer, brain damage and illiteracy.

“Or whatever it is that gluten does. Frankly, I have no idea. My Hot Yoga guru just gave me a brochure.”

Make it grain (free)

Gluten, a type of protein in wheats and certain grains, is found in numerous products including flour, pasta, pastries, beer, cereal, salad dressings and lip balm.

Although gluten-free food is recommended for people with celiac disease, it has become a fad diet for many, including millions in trendier-than-thou Portland. Gluten-free foods are becoming mainstream throughout the U.S. — even though very few consumers can explain what gluten is or why they think it’s bad.

“This is the worst news I’ve ever heard,” Portland resident Steve Arlo said as he sat drinking a microbrew made with barley and rye. “It’s like being told they dumped fluoride into the water supply. Wait! Have they dumped fluoride into the water supply?”

Dex Parios said she started her gluten-free diet “before anyone ever heard of it.” Now depressed by the news about the gluten, she is concerned that Portland is losing its reputation for livability and alternative lifestyles.

“When I moved here after getting my master’s degree in order to work part time at a record store, I thought Portland was a haven for intelligent, well-educated and cultured people,” she said. “But it’s so dangerous. Our leaders can’t even protect us from chemtrails, cell phone towers, bark dust fires, Republicans, people trying to talk to you, and now gluten outbreaks. It’s becoming like Baghdad or Afghanistan day by day.

“If I want to live in a city filled with provincial, arrogant, short-sighted morons, I’ll move to Gresham.”

Despite the paranoia gripping Portland’s streets, not all scientists are convinced by the city’s analysis and believe the water bureau has made  a grave error.

“Gluten is not soluble in water, so it’s extremely unlikely to be found in tap water,” says Dr. Chaz Friday of Portland State University. “Nevertheless, just to be on the safe side perhaps hipsters with gluten-sensitivity should move to Seattle instead.”

Source: The Daily Currant

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A Guide to Small Inline Water Filters

Small disposable inline water filters provide an easy way to add a water filter almost anywhere.  They can be used as stand-alone filters or can be added to existing filters.

Typical uses:

Refrigerator filter, to remove chlorine or chloramine from city water.

Add-on filter, to raise the pH or add mineral content to water from an undersink reverse osmosis unit.

Add-on filter to protect an existing undersink filter or RO unit from sediment.

The final or “polishing” stage of an undersink reverse osmosis unit.

An inexpensive  independent undersink filter to improve taste and odor of city tap water.

The most common format for small inlines today is with quick connect (a.k.a. John Guest) fittings, but they can still be installed with plastic compression fittings (Jaco style) or conventional copper compression fittings. They come in 6″ length, 10″, and larger.  By far the most popular size is the 10″.  They can be installed with inexpensive clips, or they be laid on the floor, or even, because of their light weight,  installed on a vertical  tube like an undersink faucet line without additional support.

Here are the fitting styles available.

The filter above has what  is currently the most popular connection method. The 1/4″ quick connect above is used widely for refrigerator filters and reverse osmosis postfilters.  Simply push in the tube until it “hits bottom” and the connection is made. This filter comes from the factory with quick connect fittings built in. These are virtually leak proof when used with plastic tubing because when the filter is replaced, the fitting is also replaced.   To release, press in on the collet (the red ring) with your thumbnail or  other release tool and pull the tube out. These fittings can be used with copper tubing, but they work much better with plastic.  The fitting in the picture is a straight-in fitting, but you can make a 90 degree fitting easily by using a socalled a plug-in elbow:

The same filters can be purchased with female threads.  Below is a standard 1/4″ threaded filter:

The threaded filter can be used either with quick connect filters added. with “Jaco” plastic compression fittings, or with standard hardware-store grade metal compression fittings.  Just telflon tape the threaded portion of the fitting and screw it into the filter.

 Metal Compression Fitting

Quick Connect Elbow

Jaco Plastic Compression Fitting

Inline filters can serve as stand-alone taste/odor/chemical filters. They can raise the pH of acidic water. They can protect appliances like coffee makers and ice machines. They can remove lead and heavy metals. They can remove sediment.  Carbon inlines come with standard GAC, coconut shell GAC, and in several carbon block styles.

More information.

Inline filters available from Pure Water Products.