Water Contamination Report

In this lab we tested the purity of water by looking for the chemicals free chlorine, chloride, sulfate, nitrate, copper, total hardness, iron, hydrogen sulfide, lead, pesticides, pH, total alkalinity, and total chlorine inside a water sample. The chemicals that produced a 0.0 result meant that there was no trace of that chemical inside the sample. The chemicals not found were copper, hydrogen sulfide, free chlorine, lead, iron, pesticide, and total chlorine. As a class we found the results of the other chemicals that were present in the water and there were two trials per test. The results for sulfate was 125 mg/L and 0.0 mg/L inside the sample, 0.0 mg/L and 0.2 mg/L of nitrite, 125 mg/L and 250 mg/L of chloride, 2.0 mg/L for both trials of nitrate and 0.0 for the trials of total chlorine. The total hardness of the water was 250, and the total alkalinity was 5.00. The average pH in our class was 8.5. The chemicals found in the sample can be hazardous when they exceed the mandatory MCL or secondary MCL mandated by the EPA. The SMCL of sulfate is 250 mg/L. Ingesting high levels of sulfate causes health hazards like diarrhea. Water that has 1 mg/L of nitrite can be very detrimental to infants under six months old and cause blue baby syndrome. Nitrate has the same hazards of nitrite but the MCL is 10 mg/L. The SMCL of chloride is 250 mg/L. There are no health effects in ingesting water with chloride although it does give a salty taste that is undesirable. Water that contains chloride should be checked for sodium because sodium can cause health effects. The MCL of total chlorine is 4.0 mg/L and it can cause stomach discomfort along with nose and eye irritation. The EPA Secondary Drinking Water regulation of alkalinity is 500 ppm. High amounts of alkalinity in water can cause drying of skin. The average pH of drinking water is 8.5, when it is greater than 8.5 it means the water is hard. Water hardness is caused by compounds like calcium and magnesium, and there