Nitrate may be successfully removed from water using treatment processes such as ion exchange, distillation, and reverse osmosis. Contact your local health department for recommended procedures. Heating or boiling your water will not remove nitrate. Because some of the water will evaporate during the boiling process, the nitrate levels of water can actually increase slightly in concentration if the water is boiled.
Remember to have your well water tested regularly , at least once a year, after installing a treatment system to make sure the problem is controlled. To receive updates highlighting our recent work to prevent infectious disease, enter your email address:. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Drinking Water. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. The lack of oxygen is often deadly for invertebrates, fish and shellfish.
People who use wells as a source of drinking water need to monitor the level of nitrates in their well water. If you drink water that is high in nitrates, it can interfere with the ability of your red blood cells to transport oxygen.
Just like dissolved oxygen, temperature, and pH, the amount of nitrates in water is determined by both natural processes and human intervention. A body of water may be naturally high in nitrates or have elevated nitrate levels as a result of careless human activities.
Nitrogen i s essential for all living things: animals and plants. Nitrogen forms a part of the proteins and DNA that are found in cells. Animals get nitrogen by eating plants and other animals. Just like animals, plants require nitrogen to grow and survive. But they do not get nitrogen by consuming proteins like animals do.
Plants get nitrogen from water and from the soil. They get nitrogen by absorbing it in the form of nitrates and ammonium.
Nitrates are the major source of nitrogen for aquatic plants. Nitrates are not utilized by aquatic organisms such as fish and aquatic insects, but nitrates are used by aquatic plants. All aquatic organisms excrete wastes and aquatic plants and organisms eventually die.
These activities create ammonia. Some bacteria in the water change this ammonia to produce nitrite which is then converted by other bacteria to nitrate. Nitrates NO 3- are an oxidized form of nitrogen and are formed by combining oxygen and nitrogen. Nitrates also come from the earth.
Soil contains organic matter, which contains nitrogen compounds. Just like the ammonia in water, these nitrogen compounds in the soil are converted by bacteria into nitrates.
Although nitrates occur naturally in soil and water, an excess levels of nitrates can be considered to be a contaminant of ground and surface waters.
Most sources of excess nitrates come from human activity. The source of excess nitrates can usually be traced to agricultural activities, human wastes, or industrial pollution. Nitrogen fertilizers have been applied to yards, fields, golf courses to promote the growth of plants. Rainwater can wash nitrates in the fertilizer into streams and rivers or the nitrates can seep into ground water.
This testing is much less common for private water supplies, however. More than , people in Kentucky use ground-water supplies, including approximately , supplied through public utilities and at least , using private wells or springs. Excess nitrate in drinking water has been found to cause methemoglobinemia, or Blue Baby Syndrome, in infants less than 6 months old.
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