This is a SHORT, LIGHT and SIMPLE newsletter. Its purpose is to rekindle in the initiated terminology they have once learned, and enlighten the uninitiated on terms they may have heard but never known the meaning of.

Interesting Numbers

A solution is made of a solvent and a solute. When sugar dissolves in water, sugar is the solute and water is the solvent. The quality of being able to dissolve into another medium is solubility. Different substances are soluble inside a given medium in different degrees. Sugar and salt are both soluble in water, but sugar is more soluble than salt. At room temperature, you can dissolve 15 pounds of sugar in one gallon of water; but only 3 pounds of table salt.

The solubility of pure benzene (a carcinogenic component of gasoline) in water is one-hundredth (0.01) of a pound per gallon. Compared to salt and sugar, benzene’s solubility is miserably low; but when you consider that the maximum level allowed for this substance in drinking water is one pound for every 24 million gallons of water, that is forty-two-billionth (0.000000042) of a pound per gallon, you can see that benzene is soluble enough to render vast amounts of groundwater undrinkable.

You can find past issues of our  "Environmental Enlightenment" at amiadini.com Wealth of information about environmental site assessments in the real estate transactions and issues concerning assessment and cleanup of contamination in the subsurface soil and groundwater.

Call me if you've got any questions. There are no obligations.

Ami Adini
Ami Adini & Associates, Inc.
Environmental Consultants
Underground Storage Tank Experts
323-913-4073; 323-667-2336 fax
mail@amiadini.com
www.amiadini.com

Ami Adini is a mechanical engineer, California Registered Environmental Assessor, Level II, and president of AMI ADINI & ASSOCIATES, INC. (AA&A), an environmental consulting firm specializing in all phases of environmental site assessments, rehabilitation of contaminated sites and upgrading of underground storage tank facilities. AA&A supplies practical solutions to environmental concerns using the highest standards of ethics and integrity while providing its clients with maximum return on their investments.