Some contaminants are more difficult to detect than others.
While some give off an offensive odor or taste, others are completely undetectable
by the senses. Nitrate
is one such contaminant.
Nitrates can come from a number of sources, making their
presence in water almost unavoidable.
“Plants need nutrients to survive and farmers add nitrate
fertilizer in soil to increase crop production,” said Khushbu Karan,
applications engineer for AdEdge. “Therefore, one of the common sources of nitrates is from
crop plants.”
Another source of nitrates are plants that consume nitrogen
in the air and pass it to the ground through their roots.
Sewage and human and animal waste can also be a source of
nitrates, as the nitrogen often present in septic system effluent is converted
to ammonia in soil. The bacteria in the soil then convert the ammonia to
nitrates.
“As we all know, excess of anything is not good,” said Karan.
“When excess nitrates that remain unused by plants percolate through the soil
into groundwater, nitrate contamination occurs.”
Much like the odorless, tasteless and colorless contaminants
of uranium and arsenic, nitrate also lacks any telltale signs. It can only be
detected through laboratory testing.
Nitrates can lead to serious health risks, particularly for livestock
and infants younger than 6 months old.
“Babies are more susceptible to nitrate poisoning since they
have nitrate bacteria present in (their) stomach(s) that convert nitrates to
nitrites that are non-carriers of oxygen,” Karan said. “It can therefore cause
suffocation and breathing problems in them, leading to serious health
problems.”
Luckily, AdEdge has several nitrate removal options, which
suit almost any application.
The ADNO3 IX
anion exchange selective resin is supplied in moist, tough, uniform spherical
beads, which remove nitrates without the expense of nitrate dumping. The media
is NSF/ANSI-61 certified and is ideal for use in drinking water, non-potable
water and environmental remediation applications.
“AdEdge also offers reverse osmosis
membrane solutions using advanced membrane technology coupled with packaged
treatment modules for a complete integrated solution,” Khushbu said. “It can
serve a variety of applications including drinking water, mining, boiler feed
and remediation.” A reverse osmosis system reduces total dissolved solids,
which include nitrates, total suspended solids, pathogens and other
contaminants. The package consists of both chemical and mechanical pretreatment
for long-term membrane operation and performance.
It is important to regularly test your water supply to
ensure its safety and compliance with federal standards. In the United States,
that standard is 10 mg/L for nitrate as nitrogen.
If your water supply contains elevated levels of this
invisible pest, contact AdEdge for a customized treatment solution to bring
your water back to a clean, safe and healthy state.
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