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Corrosion of stainless steel cable in Utah streams

To determine water quality standards, we have deployed a large number of temperature loggers in Utah streams. To anchor these loggers, we used 1/8" stainless steel braided cable, grade unknown (standard hardware stuff). At three or four locations, the cable had corroded through at the water-air interface after two to three months. The stream suffers from diurnally low dissolved oxygen, but pH is within normal range. I have installed and removed hundreds of these using the same cable, and never seen this before. Any suggestions on what could cause this?

Alex Anderson
scientist - Salt Lake City, Utah
December 2, 2009

Hi, Alex. Low quality stainless steel is such a pervasive contemporary problem now that most stainless is coming from China that I'd suspect the cable before searching for some special phenomena occurring in this particular stream.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
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December 2, 2009

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