Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1880 [PAGE 105]

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103

ORIGINAL

RESEARCHES

MADE I N THE

CHEMICAL LABOEATOEY. CONTAMINATION OF WELL AND CISTEEN WATEE BY OEGANIC MATTEE.

BY HENRY

A. WEBER, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry.

The flatness of the Illinois prairies, their deficient drainage, the depth of their soils, and the wealth of organic matter present in them, cause the opinion to prevail that well water must necessarily be contaminated with the organic substances carried into them by surface water. Further, it is supposed that rain water, which has not come into contact with the soil, especially if collected in good cisterns and if properly filtered, must be much more free from this deleterious contamination than well water, and hence better for drinking. The fallacy of this opinion was indicated to me some time since while making a series of examinations of well, cistern and river water for the State Board of Health. The specimens of water were collected at Peoria in this State. For the sake of comparison, I made at the same time an examination of the water of my own well, which, from its location and construction, had never to any appreciable extent been contaminated by surface water. The following tabular statement gives the result of the analysis:

Am'nt of Potassium Permanganate required to oxidize organic matter in 1,000,000 parts of water Absolute amount of organic matter in 1,000,000 parts of

SOURCE.

1 9 3 4 5

^ 7

H. A. W e b e r ' s well w a t e r Mississippi r i v e r w a t e r Ohio r i v e r w a t e r W. P . H a l l a d y ' s c i s t e r n w a t e r Brown's Hotel cistern water Bulletin office drive well Bulletin office c i s t e r n w a t e r

0.26 6.44 8.35 8.62 23.50 27.42 30.03

1.30 32.20 41.75 43 10 117.50 137.10 150.15

From these results it will be seen, that the water from one of the cisterns is by far the worst of the series in regard to contamination by "organic matter. The amount of organic matter contained in the