What are the normal levels of Barium in Soil and Water?

[Mick West]

The normal levels of Barium in USA surface water are 2 to 340 ug/L (ppb)

The normal levels of Barium in USA drinking water average at 28 ug/L, usually under 200 ug/L but can be as high as 1000 ug/L

The normal levels of Barium in soil are 100 to 3000 ppm (or 100,000 to 3,000,000 ppb)

Source:

http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/pdfs/factsheets/ioc/tech/barium.pdf

Background levels [of barium] for soil range from 100-3000 ppm barium. [Barium] occurs naturally in almost all (99.4%) surface waters examined, in concentration of 2 to 340 ug/l, with an average of 43 ug/l. The drainage basins with low mean concentration of barium (15 ug/l) occur in the western Great Lakes, & the highest mean concentration of 90 ug/l is in the southwestern drainage basins of the lower Mississippi Valley. In stream water & most groundwater, only traces of the element are present.


There are limited survey data on the occurrence of barium in drinking water. Most supplies contain less than 200 ug/l of barium. The average concentration of barium in USA drinking water is 28.6 ug/l (1977
data). The drinking water of many communities in Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, & New Mexico contains concentrations of barium that may be 10 times higher than the drinking water standard. The source of these supplies is usually well water. Currently 60 ground water supplies and 1 surface water supply exceeds 1000 ug/l.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxguides/toxguide-24.pdf

Environmental Levels
Air
The concentration of barium in ambient air is estimated to be <0.05 μg/m3.
Sediment and Soil
Barium is found in most soils at concentrations ranging from about 15 to
3,500 ppm and mean values ranging between 265 and 835 ppm, depending on soil type.
Water
Barium concentrations in drinking water typically average 30 μg/L, but can average as high as 302 μg/L.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1270/

(A range of 10 to 5,000 ppm in soil, average 580. Mitchell gives a range of 400-3,000 in Scotland)

 

[Jay Reynolds]

What are the normal levels of Barium in Soil and Water?
Keywords: Chemtrails, "What In The World Are They Spraying", Michael J. Murphy,

This is good. I see metabunk's results coming up frequently in search results, sometimes within 24 hours.
The visitor logs are interesting, who or whatever is visiting quite a bit.
19,000 hits for the Belfort Group thread is outrageous, what's up with that?

 

[Mick West]

What is "normal" is also rather dependent on what you are measuring. A mountain spring is different from a turbid river delta. It's easy to pick and choose if you want to present the wrong figures.

Take this post titled "Chemtrails 303":

http://www.pacificsun.com/square/index.php?i=3&t=4338

The ADEQ analyzed many water samples taken at different times from the Nogales Wash Channel between 1993 and 2002. Among other elevated readings, they found Barium at levels of: 850 ug/l, 950 ug/l and 900 ug/l.

Yes, that's a bit high. But it totally ignores the fact that the Nogales Wash Channel is actually a decades old storm drain contaminated with raw sewage that flows into the US from over the Mexican border. Which of course is why the ADEQ was monitoring it. See:

http://www.epa.gov/ocempage/gneb/pdf/2009_gneb_gonzalez.pdf


This is the Nogales Wash.

 

[Amir Nashed]

Dear Mr. Mick
Following this post, what value would you recommend for a typical barium concentration in GW in general (in my case it's in egypt) given that no data is available in literature. None of the authors concerned about water chemical analysis reported barium concentrations although other trace elements such as Cu, Cr,Al..etc were reported. is there a typical range?
Thanks

 

[Mick West]

See the top post, 2 to 340 ug/L as per EPA. Not a "recommendation", just average levels.

 

[David Fraser]

See the top post, 2 to 340 ug/L as per EPA. Not a "recommendation", just average levels.

Sorry to be pedantic Mick but that figure is for surface waters not groundwater. The only figure quoted for groundwater is the over 1000 ug/l figure at 60 sites.

In England groundwater has been found to have <0.06 - 2967.57 ug/l .

http://a0768b4a8a31e106d8b0-50dc802...550b.r19.cf3.rackcdn.com/geho0807bnao-e-e.pdf

 

[Mick West]

Thanks, I was thinking that groundwater was a subset of "surface waters".

Groundwater (they should have called it Undergroundwater ) will likely have a much higher and more variable range, due to the greater potential for exposure to minerals as it filters through various substrates.

Some other figures:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/1984/4129/report.pdf

Barium is present naturally in the ground water of New York State. A recent study of public-water supplies in New York State reported that barium concentrations range from less than 0.001 mg/L to 2.3 mg/L, with the highest values in western New York (Cartwright and Ziarno, 1980). The New York State drinkingwater standard for barium is 1.0 mg/L.

that's around 1 - 2,300 ug/L, similar to what you list for the UK.

I imagine in Egypt there are great variations. Does much of the groundwater actually come (indirectly) from the Nile?

 

[David Fraser]

Thanks, I was thinking that groundwater was a subset of "surface waters".

Groundwater (they should have called it Undergroundwater ) will likely have a much higher and more variable range, due to the greater potential for exposure to minerals as it filters through various substrates.

Some other figures:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/1984/4129/report.pdf

Barium is present naturally in the ground water of New York State. A recent study of public-water supplies in New York State reported that barium concentrations range from less than 0.001 mg/L to 2.3 mg/L, with the highest values in western New York (Cartwright and Ziarno, 1980). The New York State drinkingwater standard for barium is 1.0 mg/L.

that's around 1 - 2,300 ug/L, similar to what you list for the UK.

I imagine in Egypt there are great variations. Does much of the groundwater actually come (indirectly) from the Nile?

Most of the population centres draw water from groundwater originating from the Nile Delta so I would say yes, but in recent years they have been exploiting the Nubian Aquifer to the West, which is a fossil aquifer. Drinking water quality tends to be hit and miss. I once was abandoned at Port Said and I ended up drinking beer and gin rather than water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_Sandstone_Aquifer_System

 

[Jay Reynolds]

Some other figures:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/1984/4129/report.pdf

Barium is present naturally in the ground water of New York State. A recent study of public-water supplies in New York State reported that barium concentrations range from less than 0.001 mg/L to 2.3 mg/L, with the highest values in western New York (Cartwright and Ziarno, 1980). The New York State drinkingwater standard for barium is 1.0 mg/L.

?

New York state has highly variable ground water. I worked near Schenectady in the late 70's and our apartment well water was so bad the manager had to deliver bottled water till they got hooked up to a city source. Once while driving back from drinking in Saratoga Springs I stopped by a public spring house where I had seen people fillingjugs and took a big drink. Turns out the water was so mineralized with sulfur they were only using it for medical bathing, so terrible you had to spit it out.

 

[Miss VocalCord]

Although its slightly older research already (1989), in this document it also gives the range of barium found in Dutch groundwater:

The concentration of barium in groundwater in the Netherlands was measured at 60
locations; the mean and maximum concentrations were 0.23 and 2.5 mg/litre,
respectively (Van Duijvenbooden, 1989).

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/barium.pdf

An average of 230 µg/l with a maximum found of 2500 µg/l.

The current standards and limitations for the Netherlands can be found here:
http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0025649/Bijlage1/geldigheidsdatum_23-03-2011

For barium in groundwater they are:
Target value for (shallow) groundwater up to 10 meters: 50µg/l
Target value for (deep) groundwater deeper as 10 meters: 200µg/l
Intervention value: 625µg/l

However as of now these current standard values are not applied because in a lot of places they found higher levels as expected.

But all of this only applies to the Netherlands, but it appears the ranges are similair to all the other countries (most maximums around 2500 µg/l)

 

[Miss VocalCord]

I was pointed to a snow sample from somebody (chemtrails benelux on facebook) taken after two days of 'heavily spraying', claiming the aluminium levels were off 1000% compared to safe air quality. (Not that the person was able to give any source for what he would have expect either for snow or air samples.) Also pointing out that comparing a snow sample to expected values in air isn't really useful didn't seem to make any sense to him either.
Other claims were that the levels of barium, zink and arseen were way too high too.

This is the lab report
https://www.metabunk.org/data/MetaM...ak_prn1_856877_330995223668289_64430820_o.jpg

It doesn't contain a legend, but the arseen claim seems to be wrong from the start. It reads "< 2.0" which as far as I've seen means it was under the detectable or aimed value.


In searching for other comparing material I came across this Belgium research from 2001/2002:
http://www.provant.be/binaries/hemelwaterrapport_tcm7-137153.pdf

It is in Dutch again, but it has some interesting rainwater samples. They were taken from 19 different places in the Antwerpen area, with 3 samples from every place taking in four different seasons (Ocktober, January, April, August), resulting in a total of 228 samples for the complete research.

There are three different samples;
- "kruik" = 'free' rainwater, without contacting anything else.
- "put" = rainwater taken from a sky well (?). This is water which has possibly been in contact with roof material, gutter, drainpipe, etc.
- "kraan" = water from a tap in the house/location. This water may also have been in contact with pumps, pipes, filtration systems etc.

Results for metals start at 5.3.1 (page 23). The most interesting in this context is probably the one for aluminium (in mg/l):

median (min-max)
Al-gehalte kruik 0,05 (0,04-0,52)
Al-gehalte put 0,05 (0,04-22,6*)
Al-gehalte kraan 0,05 (0,04-0,569)

So the levels range between 40ug/l and 520ug/l showing that (although it is a snow and not a rain sample) the found value of 83ug/l is well inside expected range for aluminium.

(I just realized this post isn't that much about barium (the Belgium research didn't look at it), but I guess it might be helpful for others?)

 

[Amir Nashed]

Hello, my aplogies for very late reply
Thank you so much Mick, David Fraser and Miss VocalCord.
As david said, most populate areas draw GW originating from the Nile Delta that in addition to the Nubian aquifer. Some wells also are tapped near coastal areas where GW is mixed with seawater.
I think i will just use the value 2 mg/l as maximum potential concentration, which i am after to estimate the scaling potential of GW)