Chlorine in Water

[ajk1]

Does anyione know about testing water in the subgrade for chlorine, to distinguish if the water is natural groundwater of from a leaking municipal source? I have heard that the chlorine rapidly dissipates so this would not be a definitive test if no clorine is found. Does anyone have knowledge of this or can you suggest where I can find this information? Is there a forum that might deal with this?

 

[Ron]

Yes, chlorine will dissipate rapidly, particularly in presence of organics...leads to false negative.

 

[ajk1]

Thanks Ron. Much appreciated. Do you know of any reference text or paper that states this and maybe gives the time frame that it takes chlorine to dissipate, that I can cite as a reference?

 

[Ron]

ajk1...attached paper is close, though not exact. It points out what I stated above.

 

[ajk1]

Ron - I read this paper but did not understand it. I was looking for a conclusion that said chlorine dissipates from water within soil with organic constituents within "X" minutes, so sampling must be done within that time. But all I see is, "Samples for nitrolotriacetic acid, ethylenediamine tetraecetic acid and nonylphenolethoxycarboxylate analyses were pressure filtered though 1 micron glass fibre filters and preserved with 2% (v/v) formalin". Are you sure you sent the right paper?

 

[Ron]

ajk1...you're right...I'll check my other papers. This one was saved with a misleading file name...sorry.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

If it is an "active" leak you might get a true positive - but as said you could get a false negative.