Nitrates In Your Water

What are Nitrates and how do they get into water?

Nitrates are a tasteless, colorless, and odorless compound that you cannot detect unless your water is chemically analyzed. Users of private water supplies should have their water tested annually for Nitrates, especially in areas where fertilizers are commonly used. It is estimated that 1.5 million people are potentially exposed to nitrates from rural domestic wells. Nitrates in well water can come from fertilizer runoff, leaching from septic tanks, and even erosion of naturally occurring deposits. The 1990 EPA National Survey of Drinking Water Wells found that approximately 57 percent of the private wells tested contained detectable levels of nitrates.

Why are Nitrates a concern?

Nitrates ingested into the body are converted to nitrites, which can prevent blood from carrying oxygen properly. This can lead to a bluish/grey tint to the skin (due to a lack of oxygen), shortness of breath, increased sensitivity to illness, heart attacks, and potentially death by asphyxiation. This is most common and most dangerous in infants under 6 months of age (“blue baby syndrome” or infant methemoglobinemia.) The stomach acid of an infant is not as strong as in older children and adults. This causes an increase in bacteria that can readily convert nitrate to nitrite (NO2). In addition to the health risks to young infants, there is concern that nitrates in drinking water may also increase the risk of certain types of cancers, including bladder cancer. 

Boiling nitrate-contaminated water does not make it safe to drink and actually increases the concentration of nitrates.

When testing water for nitrates, RAdata looks for the number of ppb (parts per billion) of nitrates in the water. The NJDEP has established a maximum contaminant level of 10,000 ppb for nitrates in water.

How does RAdata reduce Nitrates in water?

Reverse Osmosis (commonly referred to as RO) is the second most common form of nitrate treatment and is typically used where cost is a major concern. An advantage of RO is its simplicity which is of special importance for small scale applications. Reverse Osmosis systems are Point of Use systems, meaning that the water is treated at a single point, usually the kitchen sink (instead of Point of Entry treatment, which would treat all of the water supplied to the home). The Reverse Osmosis system provides treated water to its own separate tap. The Reverse Osmosis system slowly makes treated water throughout the day and the treated water is stored in a small holding tank underneath the sink for on demand use. When the holding tank is full, the automatic shut–off device is triggered and signals the system to automatically cease production until more water is needed.