There is a small community water system nearby on a golf course that uses treated groundwater for drinking water and irrigation. I have a Hach cyanuric acid test - Method 8139 with a Hach DR3900 spectrophotometer. It is a turbidimetric test that uses melamine to create the cloudy flock in a water sample that can be maesured using the spectrophotmeter. All of the water in the small community system - drinking water, irrigation and water leaks all have at least 20 mg/L to 30 mg/L of cyanuric acid according to the Hach test. Since cyanuric acid is not used in this water system - what could be causing the cloudy turbidity in this test?
Hi Susan,
Being close to a golf course I would suspect that years of use of Atrazine (or other triazine herbicides) may be the cause. Photolytic degradation of triazines causes cyanuric acid. The life cycle of these products in the groundwater will depend on the amount of organic matter and presence of bacteria. You may want to test for triazines in the groundwater to confirm this. However other sources of cyanuric acid can be septic systems or swimming pools leaking into the groundwater.
However, as a simple step have you removed any turbidity from the sample by filtering prior to Hach analysis. Turbidity can cause a huge error in the final result with this test.
Good Luck.
Here is a suggestion for a correction procedure to the mentioned test.The solution suggested is to add a small amount of chlorine during the test procedure.
The author of this paper speculate that the cause of the error is connected to high levels of combined chlorine in swimming pool water. Such should not be found in well water, but there might be similar types of organic nitrogen compounds.
http://jspsi.poolhelp.com/ARTICLES/JSPSI_V1N2_pp37-39.pdf
cyanuric acid is used in salt pools as a disinfectant. Please look out for for salth pools near the study area.
To reduce interference in sample for cyanide analysis, sample should be distilled and purged with air before make colour and measure. Please see "Standard methods for the Examination of Waste and Wastewater, 2002, part 4500-CN-.
Cyanuric acid is very different from cyanide. You will not measure any cyanuric acid after the cleanup procedure described.
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