White Yeti - 2-9-2011 at 04:39
I don't have much time to elaborate on the subject, but I just made a large quantity of iron acetate and I'm not sure I can dispose of it "as is".
Would iron acetate harm the bacteria in my septic tank if I dunk it down the toilet? If it remains unchanged even in a septic tank, would it leach
into groundwater and contaminate it? I don't have any sodium hydroxide at the moment, so I can't properly treat the acetate salt to form an insoluble
hydroxide. Are there any common chemicals I can treat the acetate with to form an insoluble iron salt?
Thanks.
bbartlog - 2-9-2011 at 05:33
It should be fine. In a septic tank, I would expect it to react with ammonia to produce ammonium acetate and Fe(OH)2, both innocuous substances.
If you want to treat it anyway, baking soda will give you sodium acetate and iron carbonate. Or ammonia as in the septic tank. Or a large quantity of
stale urine... but really I don't think it's an environmental hazard.
White Yeti - 2-9-2011 at 05:50
Ok, thanks. That's what I thought, but I wanted to be absolutely sure before contaminating groundwater or messing up my septic tank.
Mr. Wizard - 2-9-2011 at 14:43
In an area with hard calcium carbonate rich water it would even make a good garden additive. Where I live you have to pay good money to buy a mix of
chelated iron and ferrous sulfate. Almost every tree and shrub gets yellow leaves (chlorosis) from lack of iron.
Killing the bacterial culture in your septic tank is a real worry. It may be possible to hurt your septic tank if the water is not alkaline. The
soluble iron may cause a problem for the bacteria in parts of the country. I know that too much soluble iron can kill trees and shrubs when applied
to their leaves, but the surviving leaves are very green. Too much of even a good thing is bad.
In short, I would be a little careful about dumping ' a large amount' of anything into a septic system. Are we talking grams or kilograms here?
aaparatuss - 3-9-2011 at 14:24
acetate salts are to useful to throw out!