ABSTRACT
The field of natural water chemistry is concerned principally with reactions that occur in relatively dilute solutions, although some natural waters have rather high solute concentrations. The primary anthropogenic sources of these nutrients are wastewater treatment plants, septic systems, suspended sediment resulting from excessive erosion, acid rain, animal manure, and commercial fertilizers. All of the chemical constituents described above undergo chemical reactions that result in their being degraded, as is the case for many of the organic chemicals, or transformed to another form, as is the case for many of the inorganic chemicals. The subject of chemical kinetics allows one to quantify how fast chemical reactions occur and answer why certain reactions are faster. Water chemistry deals with the fundamental chemical properties of water itself, the chemical properties of other constituents that dissolve in water, and the countless chemical reactions that take place in water.
