As seen in Concrete in Focus

tech talk

New
Standards for
Mixing
Water
By Colin Lobo, Ph.D.,
Vice President of Engineering, NRMCA

T he process of developing standards

through consensus can be a grueling
effort, but the benefit is an awareness of
the issue and some agreement between
producers and purchasers of concrete.
Case in point is the recent passage of a new
specification for mixing water by ASTM
Subcommittee C09.40 that is responsible
for ASTM C 94, Specification for Ready
Mixed Concrete. Two standards were
approved: ASTM C 1602/C 1602M-04
Standard Specification for Mixing Water Used
in the Production of Hydraulic Cement Con-
crete and ASTM C 1603/C 1603M-04
Standard Test Method for Measurement of
Solids in Water. Along with this, a revision
to C 94 removes the requirements for water
within the specification and makes reference
to C 1602, as it does for all other ingredient
materials used to produce concrete.
The primary purpose of the effort was to
address the reuse of process water (wash
water) from ready mixed concrete production
as mixing water in concrete. The statistics
that support this need are astounding. Using
conservative estimates, nationally the volume
of returned concrete exceeds 15 million cubic
yards and the volume of process water gener-
ated exceeds 8 billion gallons annually.
NRMCA estimates that it costs the ready
mixed concrete industry $60 million annual-
ly to comply with environmental regulations.
When the issue first surfaced in the early
’70s on the West Coast, several members of
NRMCA collected data on the characteris-
tics of wash water in settling ponds. This
facilitated a revision to C 94 in 1978 that
permitted the use of wash water as mixing
water in concrete with certain controls that
protected the purchaser of ready mixed con-
crete (and the producer, too). Since then,
there has been no change in the specifica-

CONCRETE in focus ı 27
tion. On the operational side, the require-
ment of complying with environmental reg-
ulations has increased 10 fold, with recent
enforcement construing violations of the
Clean Water Act as criminal violations. The
volume of recycled water produced at a con-
crete production facility is significantly high-
er than that which can be reused and/or
processed for discharge economically. Inno-
vations in equipment and chemical admix-
tures have since allowed the concrete
producer to better manage process byprod-
ucts and achieve a “zero-discharge” produc-
tion facility. Many ready mixed concrete
producers in the U.S. and Canada have
made the financial and time commitment to
do so. In Europe and Japan, this is standard
operating procedure.
The standards are needed to catch up
with industry practice. An effort to revise
the provisions for water was initiated in
about 1995. Following several failed ballots
on revisions to C 94, the subcommittee
evolved toward developing a separate specifi-
cation for mixing water in concrete that was
finally approved in October 2004.
ASTM C 1603 establishes a perfor-
mance basis for qualification of water for
use in concrete. It distinguishes between
sources of water as potable, non-potable and
water from concrete production operations and
establishes qualification requirements by
requiring a certain frequency of tests
depending on what the producer plans to
use. Combined water is when one or more of
the sources are used in combination. Crite-
ria apply to the total mixing water in con-
crete whether it is an individual source or a
combination of one or more sources. The
primary or mandatory criteria are to qualify
the proposed water for effects on strength
and setting time of concrete. The criteria
have not changed from the requirements of
C 94 in that “test” water should not reduce
strength by more than 10 percent or affect
the set time by more than 60 minutes earli-
er or 90 minutes later compared to a con-
crete mix with tap water. The difference is
that while the earlier provisions required
these tests to be conducted on mortar and
cement pastes, the current standard allows
this qualification to be done with either lab
or field concrete batches. The other set of
criteria, which are optional, are related to
the chemistry of the water in terms of con-
centration of chlorides, sulfates, alkalis and
total solids. These are optional in that the
28 ı WINTER 2005
purchaser must specifically invoke one or
more of these items when the concrete is
ordered. These criteria have not changed
from the previous requirements and also
apply to the total mixing water.
Testing frequency for density of water
and for the other criteria in accordance with
the standard are defined for different water
sources and are indicated in the accompany-
ing table. The reference to Table 1 in C 1602
is the mandatory criteria for strength and set-
ting time, while Table 2 lists the criteria for
the optional requirements discussed above.
Potable water is permitted for use without
any testing. Non-potable water can be taken
to mean storm water or water from streams
and other natural sources that cannot be con-
sumed by humans. Water from concrete pro-
duction represents process or wash water.
X.1. Guide for testing frequency
as related to water source used
in mixing water.
Water Combined
Sources Water
Density, Density,
g/mL C 1603
Potable N/A N/A
Non-Potable A N/A N/A
<1.01
Concrete
ProductionA 1.01 – 1.03 Daily
> 1.03
A Testing frequencies apply to the combined mixing water when it is wholly or partially composed of the listed source
as defined in Section 3.
(Table reprinted, with permission, from C1602/C1602M-04 Standard Specification for Mixing Water
Used in the Production of Hydraulic Cement Concrete, copyright ASTM International, 100 Barr Har-
bor Drive, West Conshohocken, PA 19428.)
Establishing testing frequencies for
qualifying water for use in concrete repre-
sented the major source of contention in
getting this standard approved. The result
was the best consensus that could be
achieved within ASTM. The testing fre-
quencies for wash water are controlled by
the density of the combined water pro-
posed for use. Density less than 1.01 repre-
sents a situation where a producer can use
clarified water from wash out ponds; expe-
rience and research have shown that this
does not have much impact on concrete
properties and so the testing frequency is
low. The density of 1.03 represents the situ-
ation where the combined water has a
solids content of approximately 50,000
ppm (5 percent) by weight. This could rep-
resent a scenario where wash water slurry
from reclaimed concrete at higher solids
content is diluted with clear water. If the
producer plans to use water with a higher
concentration of solids, the testing frequen-
cies are increased. This ensures that there is
constant monitoring of the effects of
process water on concrete properties. The
premise is that if the producer qualifies a
higher level of solids by performance tests,
he can use water with solids content up to
and less than that level.
ASTM C 1603 is a test method that pro-
vides procedures for measuring the density
and the solids content of water. The stan-
dard also provides guidance on blending two
sources of water to stay within a target den-
sity or solids content.
Testing Frequency
Table 1 Table 2
N/A N/A
3 months; after 6 months
4 tests annually
6 months; annually
after 2 tests
Monthly; 3 months 6 months
after 4 tests
Weekly; monthly
after 8 tests
Now that the standards are in place, it will
take some time before the producers and pur-
chasers understand the intent and how to use
them. Standards continue to evolve as the
needs change, as will these standards. The pri-
mary effort to establish the precedent was,
however, the hardest step. The ASTM Sub-
committee is now working on something C
94 is silent on — a means to reuse returned
concrete by batching on top of it. Now that
will take a long time to get accomplished!
For more information, contact Colin
Lobo at clobo@nrmca.org. ■