How To Reduce Nitrate In Drinking Water

The long term health risks associated with nitrate.

How to reduce nitrate in drinking water. Nitrates are one of the most common contaminants well owners are faced with eliminating from their water supply. Nitrates are compounds that occur naturally within the earth but are found in elevated levels in agricultural communities and rural towns. Ion exchange units reverse osmosis or distillation all remove nitrate from drinking water. While they do not present any taste or odor drinking elevated levels of nitrates can cause illness in both humans and in livestock.

Nitrate is a compound that is formed naturally when nitrogen combines with oxygen or ozone. Nitrogen is essential for all living things but high levels of nitrate in drinking water can be dangerous to health especially for infants and pregnant women. Nitrates often find their way into drinking water through the erosion of natural deposits in the ground and do not generally cause health problems. While treatment to meet drinking water needs is practical treatment of larger quantities like livestock supplies is costly.

But human activities such as fertilizer and manure applications in farming are increasingly becoming the greatest source of elevated concentrations of nitrates in drinking water. Once a water supply becomes contaminated with nitrate it is costly to treat. What are the health effects of nitrate exposure in drinking water.