How to Test Water Pollution From Sewage

Testing water pollution from sewage has become a necessity because of regular sewage spills into rivers and oceans. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) warns citizens that sewage overflows and leaking can be dangerous to our health when they end up in our drinking water and our basements because they contain coliforms, "a dangerous cargo of infectious bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxic chemicals." They can be dangerous to our environment because too much nitrate encourages the overgrowth of algae that deplete the oxygen in the water, killing water life. Nitrate is part of manure and sewage. Testing water allows you to see how much wastewater can harm the environment and humans. You can test water for different chemicals, but the two most common and useful tests are nitrate testing and fecal coliforms testing.

Things You'll Need

• Nitrate testing kit
• Fecal coliform kit
• 6 milliliter tube
• Petri dish
• Microscope

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Instructions

Nitrate Testing

• 1

  Obtain a Nitrate Testing Kit. You can buy one from any store that sells aquarium equipment. Collect your sample water and rinse a 6 milliliter tube with it.

• 2

  Pour the same amount of sample water and Mixed Acid Reagent (sulfanilic acid and alpha-naphthylamine) in your test tube until you reach the 5-milliliter line. Mix and close with the cork cap. Let it sit for a two minutes.

• 3

  Add 0.1 gram of Nitrate Reducing Reagent (alpha-naphthylamine) to your solution. Close the tube. Mix well for one minute. Wait for one hour.

• 4

  Match the color you obtain to the color chart provided.

Coliform Testing

• 5

  Take a testing tube and collect water below the surface line.

• 6

  Collect a few drops of water sample and mix it with liquid coliscan medium.

• 7

  Put the mixture into a petri dish. Let it stand in a warm place for one or two days.

• 8

  Use a microscope to count the colonies. The red colonies are coliforms and the purple colonies are E.Coli.