The Mayor of Baza has issued a warning about using mains water for drinking or cooking as its Total Organic Carbon is over what is legally considered permissible for human consumption.

This water can be used for washing and household cleaning, however, assured the Mayor’s municipal communiqué

The Town Hall, however, has not offered more information concerning the circumstances that have brought this about in this town of 20,000 inhabitants.

Quoting from Wikipedia: “Since the early 1970s, TOC has been an analytic technique used to measure water quality during the drinking water purification process. TOC in source waters comes from decaying natural organic matter (NOM) as well as synthetic sources.

Humic acid, fulvic acid, amines, and urea are examples of NOM. Some detergents, pesticides, fertilisers, herbicides, industrial chemicals, and chlorinated organics are examples of synthetic sources.

Before source water is treated for disinfection, TOC provides an estimate of the amount of NOM in the water source. In water treatment facilities, source water is subject to reaction with chlorine-containing disinfectants. When the raw water is chlorinated, active chlorine compounds (Cl2, HOCl, ClO−) react with NOM to produce chlorinated disinfection byproducts (DBPs).

Researchers have determined that higher levels of NOM in source water during the disinfection process will increase the amount of carcinogens in the processed drinking water.”

Editorial comment: Well, you learn something everyday… amongst them, don’t drink Baza tap water for the moment.

(News/Noticias: Baza, Altiplano, Granada, Andalucia)