Color of Water Samples
Dissolved and particulate material in water can cause discoloration. Slight discoloration is measured in Hazen units (HU). Impurities can be deeply colored as well, for instance dissolved organic compounds called tannins can result in dark brown colors, or algae floating in the water (particles) can impart a green color.
The color of a water sample can be reported as:
- Apparent color is the color of the whole water sample, and consists of color from both dissolved and suspended components.
- True color is measured after filtering the water sample to remove all suspended material.
Testing for color can be a quick and easy test which often reflects the amount of organic material in the water, although certain inorganic components like iron or manganese can also impart color.
Water color can reveal physical, chemical and bacteriological conditions. In drinking water, green can indicate copper leaching from copper plumbing and can also represent algae growth. Blue can also indicate copper, or might be caused by syphoning of industrial cleaners in the tank of commodes, commonly known as backflowing. Reds can be signs of rust from iron pipes or airborne bacteria from lakes, etc. Black water can indicate sulfur reducing bacteria growth inside a hot water tank set at less than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This usually has a strong sulfur or rotten egg (H2S) odor and is easily corrected by draining the water heater and increasing the temperature to 120 or higher. Care should be taken if children or the elderly will be using the hot water. The odor will always be in the hot water pipes if sulfate reducing bacteria are the cause and never in the cold water plumbing. The color spectrum with water indicators is wide and, if learned, can make solving cosmetic, bacteriological and chemical problems easier to identify.
Read more about this topic: Color Of Water
Famous quotes containing the words color of, color, water and/or samples:
“Rain falls into the open eyes of the dead
Again again with its pointless sound
When the moon finds them they are the color of everything”
—William Stanley Merwin (b. 1927)
“Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“All who wish to hand down to their children that happy republican system bequeathed to them by their revolutionary fathers, must now take their stand against this consolidating, corrupting money power, and put it down, or their children will become hewers of wood and drawers of water to this aristocratic ragocracy.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Good government cannot be found on the bargain-counter. We have seen samples of bargain-counter government in the past when low tax rates were secured by increasing the bonded debt for current expenses or refusing to keep our institutions up to the standard in repairs, extensions, equipment, and accommodations. I refuse, and the Republican Party refuses, to endorse that method of sham and shoddy economy.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)