[Nitrate concentrations in tap water in Spain]
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 17, 2026

Estimating Sediment Denitrification Rates Using Cores and N2O Microsensors
Published on: December 6, 2018
Isidro Vitoria1, Francisco Maraver2, Félix Sánchez-Valverde3
1Unidad de Nutrición y Metabolopatías, Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, España.
Objective:
To determine nitrate concentrations in drinking water in a sample of Spanish cities.
Material And Methods:
We used ion chromatography to analyze the nitrate concentrations of public drinking water in 108 Spanish municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants (supplying 21,290,707 potential individuals). The samples were collected between January and April 2012. The total number of samples tested was 324.
Results:
The median nitrate concentration was 3.47 mg/L (range: 0.38-66.76; interquartile range: 4.51). The water from 94% of the municipalities contained less than 15 mg/L. The concentration was higher than 25mg/L in only 3 municipalities and was greater than 50mg/L in one.
Conclusions:
Nitrate levels in most public drinking water supplies in municipalities inhabited by almost half of the Spanish population are below 15 mg/L.
More Related Videos
08:25Measuring Nitrite and Nitrate, Metabolites in the Nitric Oxide Pathway, in Biological Materials using the Chemiluminescence Method
Published on: December 25, 2016
07:14Automated, High-resolution Mobile Collection System for the Nitrogen Isotopic Analysis of NOx
Published on: December 20, 2016
Related Concept Videos
2° Amines to N-Nitrosamines: Reaction with NaNO2
Quality of Water
Precipitation Titration Curve: Analysis
1° Amines to Diazonium or Aryldiazonium Salts: Diazotization with NaNO2 Overview
The nitrous acid is unstable. Hence, it is formed in situ from a solution of sodium nitrite and cold aqueous acids such as hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. In an acidic solution, the –OH group of nitrous acid undergoes protonation to give oxonium ion, followed by...
Testing Water Quality