Chlorine
OVERVIEW AND TREATMENT OPTIONS:
Chlorination in drinking water is the addition of chlorine to water distribution systems. Chlorine is an extremely effective disinfectant providing bacteria and virus free drinking water for more than a century, and is still the most common type of drinking disinfection. This chemical can cause water to smell or taste like chlorine and can cause your skin to dry and make hair unmanageable. It is also a strong oxidizing agent, but this aggressive nature may cause byproducts in your water such as Trihalomethanes (THMs) which is a known carcinogen. It’s residual will also leave a bad chemical taste making most agree that any amount of chlorine or it’s byproducts is unacceptable in drinking water.
SOURCES
Municipalities use chlorine to disinfect water supplies to ensure the water is free of any bacteria or pathogenic microorganisms with can cause illnesses. Many waterborne illness have been effectively reduced due to the addition of chlorine in drinking water systems. Water is considered safe to drink as long as the chlorine levels do not exceed 4 mg/L. Meaning chlorine in small doses poses no health concerns whereas higher concentrations may be a serious health risk.
HEALTH CONCERNS
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limits the amount of chlorine in drinking water to levels that are safe for human consumption. The levels of chlorine used for drinking water disinfection are unlikely to cause long-term health effects. Disinfection byproducts (DBP) can be an issue though. During treatment chlorine can combine with naturally occurring organic matter in the water forming these byproducts. The EPA has set limits for several of these DBPs, requiring all public water systems that disinfect to regularly test their treated water to measure the levels of DBPs.
TREATMENT
Granular Activated Carbon Filters will remove chlorines taste and smell. They can be installed as either a point-of-use or a point-of-entry distribution system. BWS has a wide variety of CARBON FILTER SYSTEMS