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Figure 1 (left):
Uncovered
Other Chloride Sources
Chlorides can also enter a watershed
salt piles
through water softener discharge or
such as this
will lose 20% sewage contamination. Water
of their salt to softeners remove magnesium and
local waters calcium ions from hard water by
each year. performing an ionic exchange
reaction with sodium chloride. Small
amounts of sodium enter water that
Measuring Chlorides has passed through the softener,
At URI Watershed Watch, volunteers collect water samples for while magnesium chloride and
chloride analysis in the spring and fall. In the lab, chloride testing is calcium chloride are stored in the
performed by Watershed Watch staff using a sophisticated autoan- device and eventually discharged as
alyzer, which can quickly test a large number of samples. Chloride brine into a sewer or septic system.
test strips are also commercially available for home use.
As salt intake continues to increase
URI Watershed Watch volunteers monitoring use salinity in the American diet, more chlorides
refractometers or meters for estuaries, bays and the ocean. These are entering groundwater through
devices measure concentration in parts per thousand and are human waste. Sodium chloride is
therefore not sensitive enough for measuring chlorides in fresh added to many processed foods to
water. (A part per thousand is 1000 time more concentrated than a delay spoilage while bringing out
part per million.) flavor. However, chlorides are not
removed from waste by septic tank
treatment processes and enter the
Figure 2 (left) and Figure 3 leach field with the rest of the
(below): Chloride effluent, or wastewater. From there,
concentrations tend to be chlorides can enter groundwater
higher in bodies of water through septic systems and find their
surrounded by large way into lakes, ponds, streams, and
developed areas with lots of
wetlands. URI Cooperative Extension
impermeable surfaces.
Water Quality Program has
Photos courtesy of Ken
Wagner. assembled informative fact sheets
about home wastewater treatment,
septic system maintenance, and
drinking water quality that can be
found online at www.uri.edu/ce/wq.
Molly Hunt, B.S., is a student in the University of Rhode Island’s M.E.S.M. program. Linda
Green, M.S., and Elizabeth Herron, M.A. are members of the Dept. of Natural Resources
Science, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island.
Contribution #5286 of the RI Agricultural Experiment Station, with support from RI
Cooperative Extension, and RI Department of Environmental Management. Cooperative
Extension in Rhode Island provides equal opportunities without regard to race, age, religion,
color, national origin, sex or preference, creed or handicap.