Trying to Balance Braintree (MA) Water Report

[jdauria]

Found the updated water report for my town online and tried entering it into Bru'n Water spreadsheet, but cations and anions are off by over 2 points.

This is what the report lists (all in mg/l):

PH 7.3
Calcium 18.3
Magnesium 3.97
Sodium 65.2
Sulfate 67.8
Chloride 149.0
Alkalinity 22.4
Hardness 62.1
Potassium 2.4

Would someone be willing to plug these numbers in and see if they get balanced ions?

 

[mabrungard]

If I recall correctly, Braintree gets its water from a reservoir. It looks like there is a lot of road salt runoff in that sample. Is it possible that the water report is not from a single sampling event? Multiple events?

 

[ajdelange]

You are only off by 1.875 mEq/L but that's still a whole lot. As you have no idea as to whether they have understated the cations by 1.875 or overstated the anions by this amount it would be best to contact them, let them know that they are imballanced by this much and see if they have an explanation. If they don't, or in any case, it would be a good idea to get a Ward Labs test run on this water.

 

[jdauria]

Thanks guys. Yes, Martin the water is from a reservoir. Looking at the fine print the results are from multiple tests and the numbers reported are the highest detected level from the various tests.

AJ - I normally use distilled and build up using Martin's Bru'n Water, but was just interested in trying to use tap for a change to see how the beer comes out. I definitely need to to a Ward Labs test, keep putting it off. Will definitely call the water department and see what they say.

 

[mabrungard]

Thanks guys. Yes, Martin the water is from a reservoir. Looking at the fine print the results are from multiple tests and the numbers reported are the highest detected level from the various tests.

Oh, Can't do that. If they report the averages for each ion, you MIGHT be able to deduce the typical profile. But even that can be iffy when the water quality varies greatly.

Call the water company and ask to speak to the laboratory. They have all the data and will typically provide all their results if you can connect with the right person. It might take several calls.

 

[Calichusetts]

Poland Springs is an amazing profile to start from, its what I use

 

[ajdelange]

Looking at the fine print the results are from multiple tests and the numbers reported are the highest detected level from the various tests.

There's your explanation. These data are pretty useless. Only data taken from a single sample can be expected to balance though average data could be fairly balanced (regression of the mean).