Total Organic Carbon Content for Water Quality Checking

Methods for water quality checking are an incredibly important part of the many processes involved in ensuring we have access to safe drinking water.

Purification processes for water treatment include removal of undesirable chemicals, bacteria, solid waste and gases and can be very costly. Utility companies in England and Wales invested £2.1 billion between 2013 and 2014 into infrastructure and assorted costs to ensure safe drinking water.

One of the most widely used measures for water quality checking in order to assess whether water is safe for consumption or not is the analysis of the organic carbon (TOC) content. Dissolved organic carbon content is a measure of how much carbon is found in the water as part of organic compounds, as opposed to inorganic sources such as carbon dioxide and carbonic acid salts. ­­It has been a popular water quality checking method since the 1970s for both assessment of drinking water and checking wastewater has been sufficiently purified.

The proportion of organic carbon in water is a good proxy for water quality checking as high organic carbon levels indicate a high level of organisms in the water or, contamination by organic compounds such as herbicides and insecticides. High levels of microorganisms can arise for a variety of reasons but are often a sign of contamination from a wastewater source.

Click on 'more information' below to read the full article.