This month on “Wonderful Water,” join 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell for a conversation with OWASA’s Water Treatment Plant Laboratory Supervisor Chris Gibbons about the annual disinfecting of pipes across Orange County with chlorine in the month of March.
According to Gibbons, OWASA’s water treatment plants make frequent use of chloramine compounds — formed by combining chlorine and ammonia — throughout the year. But it’s in everyone’s best interest to change up the disinfectant routine every once in a while.
“The change in the treatment process is recommended by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and it’s standard practice among all of our neighboring water utilities,” said Gibbons. “Most of the year, OWASA uses a combination of chlorine and ammonia known as chloramine to disinfect the drinking water, but in March we only use chlorine for the disinfection process. Now, this change is only for the month of March — it has no impact on the safety of the drinking water. The water does remain safe to drink throughout the year, and chloramines are an excellent disinfectant. There’s very stable in the water and they don’t have a chlorine taste in odor associated with it. However, there’s certain types of bacteria that are resistant to chloramine disinfection. So, by switching to just chlorine once per year in March, we’re ensuring the best possible disinfection of our water system.”
OWASA customers should not be worried by these routine changes to drinking water this month — though complaints of chlorine odor and concerns of over-chlorination of water are common during the process, said Gibbons. For any customers noticing a change in the taste and odor of their water, OWASA recommends simple practices such as storing water uncovered in the fridge for a time to allow chlorine to dissipate, or adding foods containing ascorbic acid (such as citrus fruits or cucumber) to neutralize the taste.
“I would say the number one call we get is ‘my water smells different’ or ‘my water tastes different,’ or ‘I’m getting this swimming pool odor, what’s going on is, is the water safe?’ Because chloramines don’t have that chlorine odor. People are sometimes alarmed, thinking that maybe we’ve over-chlorinated the water, maybe added too much, that maybe there’s a safety or health concern. And, you know, I just want to assure everyone that this is something that’s recommended by the state of North Carolina. It’s something that we’ve done every year in March for many years. All our neighboring utilities make this change as well, and we do carefully control the chlorine concentration in the water at all times”
You can listen to the full conversation below, and visit the Wonderful Water page here for more interviews and stories about the work OWASA does in our community.
(Featured image via OWASA)
Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents use roughly 7 million gallons of water a day, and “Wonderful Water” is a monthly conversation sponsored by the Orange Water and Sewer Authority highlighting its work to keep our community growing and water flowing.
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