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Around The Vineyard
varying amounts of TDS, total dissolved solids and fibres at the molecular (atomic) level. 15 pulp mills
TSS, total suspended solids. One stream may dis- in both corporations changed the way they ran
charge its nutrient load farther into a lake than their processes.
another.
The author in 1997 using
As an exercise, If your vineyard is on a lake or an AA, atomic absorption
river, download a satellite image and mark its spectrometer with graphite
location in relation to all of the above. You may be furnace, to do accurate and
shocked at what you see. precise river water analysis.
His stereoscopic microscope
At one point in my career as a research chemist photography work was later
in a pulp mill first owned by Proctor & Gamble and verified by using scanning
then by Weyerhaeuser, I believed that the season- electron microscopes by cor-
ally changing chemistry of incoming river water for porate chemistry PhD’s.
the mill was impacting the final pulp fiber morphol-
ogies in different ways throughout the year. The I then carried this type of testing later in my final
mill pumped in 6.3 million litres per hour, 24 hours career as a senior lab technologist for an oil com-
a day. pany using an ICP-OES, (Inductively coupled plasma
optical emission spectrometer). The flame of this
I proved that individual elements such as iron, instrument burns at a temperature 2,000°F hotter
calcium and sodium in the river water, in parts than the surface of the sun. I measured elements
per million (ppm) and parts per billion (ppb), were down to the very low ppb level and high ppt levels
impacting the final processed fiber properties by in daily/weekly process and environmental samples
interfering at the chemical bonding sites of the from lake water, river water, fresh water wells and
Vineyard vs. Vineyard:
Water Is The Great Unequalizer
By: Orest Protch
877-892-5332 The Grapevine • November - December 2021 Page 59
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