Today we’d like to highlight the free nitrate testing program that will run from July 18 to July 20, 2011 in Douglas County, Minnesota.

Sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Douglas County Soil and Water Conservation District, free nitrates in water testing will get offered to residents who bring samples of their well or tap water to the County offices in Alexandria.

Why test for nitrates?

For starters, the USEPA has deemed them a health hazard if consumed in too great a quantity — especially for young children and babies.

A condition known as Blue Baby Syndrome, experts believe, may result when nitrates hinder the ability of hemoglobin to carry oxygen in the bloodstream.

Reduced amounts of oxygen in the bloodstream can cause developmental problems and could even result in the death.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and Douglas County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) will offer a free nitrate water-testing clinic July 18-20 at the County offices located at 900 Robert Street, Suite 102, in Alexandria. Clinic hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The clinic is the latest in a series of water-testing clinics sponsored by MDA. Nitrates are the most common contaminants in Minnesota’s groundwater, and in some areas of the state a significant number of wells have high nitrate levels. With that in mind, experts recommend that homeowners who get their drinking water from wells should test their water regularly.

“Nitrates in drinking water can be a risk to human health,” MDA Commissioner Dave Frederickson said. “Public drinking water supplies are monitored for nitrates, but it’s important for homeowners with private wells to check their water and take action if their water has high nitrates levels.” ( source )

For those not lucky enough to live in a place offering free nitrate testing, do not fret because everyone has the option of performing at-home testing for nitrates for less than $0.50 per test AND get dependable results in just a few short minutes. The WaterWorks Nitrate/Nitrite Test Strip gives homeowners and water professionals the ability to quickly determine if a Nitrate or Nitrite problem may exist in a body of water.

Filters to remove nitrates from drinking water?

Several different styles of filter exist to remove nitrates from drinking water. Depending upon the amount of water you want to filter and the amount of nitrates in your source water, pricing for a simple disposable nitrate removal filter start around $120, pricing for higher capacity undersink nitrate filters start around $125, and pricing for more sophisticated whole house nitrate removal systems starts around $1,370.

Nitrate & Nitrite Test Strips

We have posted a number of articles about nitrates in drinking water and given a number of links to products that can remove nitrates from drinking water… and today we found out that FilterWater.Com has started carrying a highly effective nitrate removal system made by Crystal Quest that costs less than $150, features a dual filter system containing a total of 7 filtration stages, and qualifies for free shipping.

Do I have nitrates in my drinking water?

Nitrates occur naturally in the environment and may come from any number of sources in nature including, but not limited to, animal waste that filters down into the aquifer. Wells tapping into that aquifer as a source of drinking water then pull the water to the surface where it gets used by the well owner for cooking, drinking, bathing, etc.

• Testing for Nitrates in Drinking Water
  – includes a simple explanation of Blue Baby Syndrome
• Springtime Testing of Well Water in Farming Community?
• Simple Test for Nitrates and Nitrites in Water

• Nitrates in Well Water / Private Well Testing

What harm can nitrates in drinking water do?

The USEPA summed up the effects of nitrates in drinking in the following ways:

“Short-term: Excessive levels of nitrate in drinking water have caused serious illness and sometimes death. The serious illness in infants is due to the conversion of nitrate to nitrite by the body, which can interfere with the oxygen-carrying capacity of the child’s blood. This can be an acute condition in which health deteriorates rapidly over a period of days. Symptoms include shortness of breath and blueness of the skin.” ( source )

“Long-term: Nitrates and nitrites have the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: diuresis, increased starchy deposits and hemorrhaging of the spleen.” ( source )

How can I get rid of nitrates in my water?

We started this posting by saying that Filter Water now carries a dual filter counter top nitrate removal system… so now we figure we ought to tell you a little more about it.

Stage 1 — This product uses as dedicated nitrate removal filter. Water first flows through a nitrate-selective resin cartridge designed to reduce nitrate levels in water by 90 to 95 percent. The cartridge has an expected nitrate capacity of approximately 5500 ppm and owners can regenerate (aka: recharge, flush out, clean) the cartridge using a sodium chloride brine solution when it gets full.

Stages 2 & 7 — Pre and post one-micron filter pads remove suspended particles such as silt, sediment, cyst (Giardia, Cryptosporidium), sand, rust, dirt, and other undissolved matter in the water.

Stages 3 & 4 — Specially formulated beds of copper and zinc (KDF-55D, and KDF-85D) use a process known as oxidation-reduction to exhaust any chlorine in the water and convert iron and hydrogen sulfide into insoluble matter which attaches to the surface of the media. Heavy metals such as lead, mercury, copper, nickel, chromium, cadmium, aluminum, etc. also get removed during stages 3 & 4.

Stage 5 — Ion exchange resins reduce heavy metals such as lead, copper and aluminum further and also reduce water hardness by filtering out magnesium and calcium.

Stage 6 — Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC), a universally recognized and widely used adsorbent for a wide variety of unwanted drinking water contaminants such as chlorine (99.9%), chemicals linked to cancer (i.e. THM’s, benzene) pesticides & herbicides such as atrazine and simazine, insecticides, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), PCB’s, MTBE’s and hundreds of other chemical contaminants which could possibly exist in your water supply.

Other features of the Dual Filter Nitrate Removal System?

Many people simply do not want to mess around with plumbing under their sink so a unit like the Crystal Quest Dual Filter Nitrate Filter System which requires no plumbing will work out beautifully.

The unit sits quietly next to the sink on the counter top and connects easily to pretty much any standard kitchen faucet. It also comes with a diverter valve which allows people to switch between filtered and unfiltered water with the flip of a switch.

Not digging the stark white appearance of the filter? Don’t worry! You have the option of ordering the unit with a chrome finish if that better suits the decor of your kitchen.

How long will the filters last and what do replacements cost?

The manufacturer estimates that the filters ought to last between 1 and 3 years depending upon the initial quality of source water. Keep in mind, though, that a soaking of the nitrate-specific cartridge in sodium or potassium chloride solution at room temperature will recharge the cartridge for additional use.

1. Remove cartridge from unit
2. Immerse the cartridge in a sodium or potassium chloride and room temperature water for a period of 30 minutes
3. Rinse off and then soak the cartridge for 30 minutes in salt-free water
4. Shake excess water off of and out of the cartridge
5. Place the cartridge back in the filter housing
6. Run through the systems for a period of 5-10 minutes

When it comes time to replace the nitrate-specific filter cartridge it will cost around $50 and the 6-stage filter cartridge will cost about the same.

In our experience, four basic groups of people ought to consider installing a nitrate filter on their drinking water line and/or main water line, though other folks may have reason to as well:

   * Anyone who has well water and lives in an area where regional flooding takes place on a regular or semi-regular basis. Nitrates occur naturally in the environment and if a well head gets covered by flood water, any crack or fissure in the well covering could allow nitrates, bacteria and other potentially harmful contaminants to infiltrate the well.

   * Anyone who has well water and lives in an area close to certain types of manufacturing facilities — most notably fertilizer factories. Sometimes runoff containing nitrates from facilities infiltrate local water supplies… by accident, of course.

   * Anyone who has well water and lives in or close to areas engaged in agriculture (farming). Many of the fertilizers used by even the smallest of farms contain nitrates and often times those nitrates will get washed away by rain water and make their way into aquifers. Additionally, farms that raise animals may not always dispose of nitrate-rich animal waste and just as in the case of nitrates from fertilizers, the nitrates from animal waste often find their way into aquifers.

First Line of Defense

Without testing, one will never know if their water contains potentially harmful contaminants. Therefore, a homeowner’s first line of defense against drinking water contamination is and always will be testing their drinking water.

For nitrate and nitrate in drinking water testing, SenSafe manufactures an easy-to-use test strip that measures both nitrate and nitrate concentrations in water at the same time and yields results in about one minute.

Should you rely solely upon a test strip to tell you whether or not your water contains potentially harmful contaminants? Not at all. Certified testing labs such as National Testing Laboratories specialize in analyzing drinking water for contaminants and follow strict government approved and/or recommended protocols when performing any testing.