Water treatment plans must reduce phosphate levels to 3.2 micromoles PO4^3-/L before the water is considered drinkable. If water from Lake A is determined to have a phosphate concentration of 0.419 mg PO4^3-/L, does it meet this allowable standard for drinking water?
1 mol PO4^3- = about 95g but you can do that more accurately.
0.419 mg = 0.000419 g =
0.000419/95 = about 4.4E-6 mols.
That is 4.4 micromols.
To determine if the water from Lake A meets the allowable standard for drinking water, we need to convert the phosphate concentration from milligrams per liter (mg/L) to micromoles per liter (μmol/L), and then compare it to the 3.2 μmol/L threshold.
First, let's convert the concentration of phosphate from mg/L to μmol/L:
1 mg/L is equal to 1 millimole per liter (mmol/L), and 1 millimole (mmol) is equal to 1000 μmol. Therefore, we can convert mg/L to μmol/L by multiplying the concentration by 1000.
Given that the phosphate concentration is 0.419 mg PO4^3-/L, we can convert it to μmol/L as follows:
0.419 mg/L * 1000 μmol/mmol = 419 μmol/L.
Now that we have converted the concentration to μmol/L, we can compare it to the allowable standard of 3.2 μmol/L.
The concentration of phosphate in the water from Lake A is 419 μmol/L, which is higher than the allowable standard of 3.2 μmol/L. Therefore, the water from Lake A does not meet the allowable standard for drinking water.
To summarize, the water from Lake A does not meet the allowable standard for drinking water because its phosphate concentration of 0.419 mg PO4^3-/L is higher than the required limit of 3.2 μmol/L.