Water Alkalinity

Hi,

What is water alkalinity? This term refers to pH of the water. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is considered to be neutral. Substances with pH less than 7 are acidic; substances with pH greater than 7 are alkaline.

The pH is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions. Simply the idea to keep in mind is: higher pH, there are fewer free hydrogen ions; the conversely is true; lesser pH, there are higher free hydrogen ions.


Is it water alkalinity good? Is it natural?

A statement from EPA US says “Most lakes and streams have a pH between 6 and 8, although some lakes are naturally acidic even without the effects of acid rain”. That means naturally some lakes are alkaline.

Also, it is important to note that in some regions like Amazon there are naturally acid floodplains, an example is, Trombetas River, (average pH 5.7). In this case, there are a completely ecosystem adapted to the acid pH. If some human action tends to change the pH level, for example, from average pH 5.7 to pH 8 or higher, there will be considerably changes in the ecosystem with adverse effects to pH sensitive species etc.

Cheers

Ranulfo