Water is essential for life. However, in many places, drinking water can also contain many impurities that can cause issues in the body. One of the most harmful impurities is arsenic. If your water has arsenic in it and you want to know how to remove it, then you need to choose the right well water filtration system because not all water filter remove arsenic. We will explain why arsenic is bad and how to remove it from your drinking water.

Dangers Of Arsenic In Water

Arsenic is found in the groundwater and it can pollute the water easily. Usually, arsenic can find its way into water through pesticides and the discharge of industrial waste that contains a lot of harmful elements that can ultimately cause arsenic impurity in water.

Arsenic is seemingly colorless and odorless in water and a detailed water report is the only way to find out whether your tap water or well water has arsenic in it or not. In drinking water, arsenic should be present in trace quantities – 10 parts per billion of arsenic in water is acceptable by the EPA.

Arsenic isn’t the best for the body either. It can lead to many problems and it can cause chronic and life-altering issues in the body. Some of the health issues that arsenic can cause are as follows:

Upset Stomach

Arsenic consumption can lead to a very upset stomach. It can cause a lot of vomiting, and diarrhea and it can ultimately lead you to be extremely dehydrated. This is not a good thing at all, because dehydration can lead to a lot of issues and it can turn into a medical emergency within minutes.

This is why it’s recommended that you get your water tested for arsenic and remove it as soon as possible, otherwise the results can be detrimental to your body.

Birth Defects

Pregnant women are also quite at risk of drinking water with arsenic in it. During pregnancy, it can cause birth defects in the baby and it can also cause immense hormonal imbalance, which is never a good thing for your body.

Heart Failure

Arsenic can also lead to heart failure and issues in the long run. It can cause irregular heartbeat, valve failure, and even blood clots in various parts of the body, which is never a good sign.

Numbness

Arsenic, if consumed in a lot of quantities, through water, can lead to numbness in the body. The numbness can be felt in the extremities of your body. The ends of the fingers and toes, the tips of the ears and nose, etc. This is very alarming and frightening and you need to do something about arsenic in water before things get out of hand.

Kidney Failure

Arsenic can also cause kidney failure and other associated diseases. Since you are extremely dehydrated, the kidneys won’t be able to function and you will tend to develop stones, cramping in the kidneys, and even kidney failure, eventually. This is why drinking water with arsenic is bad for human health and other living beings alike.

How To Remove Arsenic From Your Drinking Water?

Arsenic is something unwanted in the water. But how do you remove it from the water to make it safe for drinking and use? Luckily, there are ways by which you can purify the water and make it free from arsenic and safe for drinking. A lot of methods have been employed to remove toxic and harsh metals from water to make it pure, safe, and potable again.

A popular way of removing arsenic and most impurities from water is using a reverse osmosis system VA. It uses the membrane filtration method.

Oxidation

The first process involved in removing arsenic from water is oxidation. It is done by changing arsenite (Ar III) to arsenate (Ar V). This is done by introducing either oxygen, hypochlorite, permanganate, or hydrogen peroxide.

Usually, oxygen is used for most oxidation processes, since it is readily available and abundant in quantity, making the arsenic removal process very cost-effective and easy. One thing is for sure though. Arsenic takes a long time to be oxidized. It can take anywhere between 4 to 6 weeks for arsenic to be oxidized and then it is removed from the water in its precipitated state.

Ion Exchange

The ion exchange process is also employed to exchange arsenic for other neutral ions. Usually, the water comes in contact with the resin bed that is stretched across a skeleton called the matrix. The water goes through it and removes ionic arsenic and exchanges it for other ions that are harmless to the body and don’t mess with the composition of the water either.

So, it is really important to remove arsenic from water in a way that doesn’t leave any traces behind, because that will ruin the whole purpose of it. Also, this process is unrelated to pH, so it makes the removal a lot easier.

Coagulation

Alum, ferric chloride, or ferric sulfate are effective in removing arsenic from water. Coagulation is the combining of smaller particles to form bigger ones that are easily visible and floating in water. This can be skimmed and removed from the water and it will be free of impurities.

Usually, the coagulants are introduced into the water and then they are agitated to form pills of coagulants. Then, the water is passed through a filter and it can be free of all impurities, mainly arsenic and other heavy metals. This is an easy, fast, and effective way of removing arsenic from water.

Adsorption

This is the process of coating a strip or plate of metal hydroxide with the free arsenic. The arsenic doesn’t necessarily penetrate the plate of metal hydroxide, rather it forms a layer that can later be scraped off and the plate can be used again and again for more adsorption.

This process does take a bit of time, as adsorbing arsenic on a plate of another metal is hard and involves employing this process in a specialized environment to ensure that all of the arsenic is removed from the drinking water, to make it safe for normal consumption.

Membrane Filtration

As the name implies, membrane filtration is a process that removes impurities by passing them through a membrane that is large enough to let water pass through easily, but small enough to hold back all of the impurities, including arsenic.

It can be done by either reverse osmosis, or it can be done by low-pressure membranes like ultrafiltration and microfiltration. This is a very effective arsenic removal technique, but it can be rendered useless when it comes in contact with either iron or manganese. It can lead to membrane damage and failure and once that happens, the membrane filtration process will not be able to go through perfectly.

So, if water contains any of these impurities, besides arsenic, then it can lead to membrane failure and that’s not what you want. So, this process is employed less frequently, and only on water that is relatively free of other membrane damaging impurities, but only has arsenic in it.

Conclusion

Arsenic is a very dangerous metal that is usually untraceable in water, as far as color and odor are concerned. So, a water test is necessary so you can consider the right water treatment Loudoun County option.