Water Contaminant Treatments

Carbon Tetrachloride

Drinking Water Sources of Carbon Tetrachloride

Carbon tetrachloride (CC14) is a volatile organic chemical (VOC), and is primarily used in the manufacture of chlorofluoromethane but also in grain fumigants, fire extinguishers, solvents, and cleaning agents. Many water supplies across the country have been found to contain measurable amounts of VOC's. VOC's pose a possible health risk because a number of them are probable or known carcinogens. The detection of VOC's in a water supply indicates that a pollution incident has occurred, because these chemicals are man-made. See Volatile Organic Chemicals for a complete listing. The US EPA has classified carbon tetrachloride as a probable human carcinogen and established an MCL of 0.005 mg/l.

Treatment of Carbon Tetrachloride

Reverse Osmosis will remove 70 to 80% of the VOC's in drinking water, as will ultrafiltration and electrodialysis. Carbon tetrachloride as well as the other volatile organic chemicals (VOC's) can also be removed from drinking water with activated carbon filtration. The adsorption capacity of the carbon will vary with each type of VOC. The carbon manufacturers can run computer projections on many of these chemicals and give an estimate as to the amount of VOC which can be removed before the carbon will need replacement.