Determination of Nitrite and Nitrate levels in drinking water consuming in Aydın by high pressure liquid chromatography

Nitrate and nitrite levels in drinking water are important indicators of water quality. The increasing levels of nitrate and nitrite concentrations could be an important problem for human and animal health.The aim of the present study was to determine the levels of nitrite and nitrate in drinking water samples collected from Aydın region.Total 104 water samples were collected from different districts of Aydın between 2009 and 2010 both of winter-spring and summer-autumn seasons. The samples consisted of 71 artesian well waters, 22 spring waters and 11 bottled waters. Before collecting, the sample bottles have been rinsed out 8-10 times with the sample water. All bottled water samples were purchased from retail outlets in Aydın. The water samples collected were kept in the dark room at +4ºC until analysis.pH of the samples collected were measured by an electronic pH meter. Nitrite and nitrate levels of the water samples were determined by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).It was found that nitrate was detected in all of the samples whereas, nitrite was found in 2 artesian well samples collected from Pınardere (1.26 ppm) and Bozdoğan-Çamlıdere (1.26 ppm). The results of analyses showed that mean nitrate concentrations were 21.84±29.96 ppm (winter) and 20.28±24.09 ppm (summer) in artesian wells, 3.04±2.57 ppm (winter) and 3.41±2.85 ppm (summer) in spring waters and 3.61±2.31 ppm (winter) and 2.87±2.31 ppm (summer) in bottled water samples. The mean nitrate level of the artesian well samples was significantly higher compare to spring and bottled water samples. However, no statistical differences were observed between winter-spring and summer-autumn seasons for the nitrate levels in the same type of the water samples.The present study showed that, the spring and bottled water samples in Aydın are of sanitarily optimum quality for consumption in respect of nitrite and nitrate levels.