Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Answer from City on Excessive Chlorination Levels in Albany Water

A water department employee just called me on my excessive chlorination complaint. Seems they get tons of such complaints about Albany water.

He says they have to use far more chlorine in Albany water than other cities do for two reasons. One reason is because the source of Albany water, some of it, is an open gunk filled canal, so the risk of all sorts of bacteria is high.

The other reason is distance the water travels from the two plants to North Albany water users. He says piping the water clear to north Albany requires that the levels of chlorine, which can dissipate as gas be adequate once they reach users at that distance. So that means they have to dump excess chlorine in the water, to maintain levels for the time it takes to reach North Albany, so in town users closer to the plants, get far higher levels of chlorine in their tap water.

I guess they get a lot of complaints from in town water customers. I would guess they would.

Water rates in Albany are exceedingly high, higher, I am told, than any other city in the state. And yet, the quality of that water is such that some users cannot stand its smell or taste, due to excess chlorine.

Also, I don't think drinking high levels of chlorine is healthy, long term.

He said I'd need to get a filtration system to rid the water of the chlorine.

Or I can move, which is my ultimate plan.

7 comments:

  1. You can fill a milk jug up with water and don't close it up, leave it on the counter for 24 hours. That will allow the chlorine to evaporate out of the water.

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  2. I've been doing that, then my jug fell and split so I was using smaller ones, not keeping up. I just got a PUR filter (thanks to Kay!) that goes on the faucet. I am about to hook it up.

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  3. and I thought our city water was bad! i lived all my life in the county and the water was fine - ten years ago, after moving to the city, I couldn't stand the taste of the water so I buy bottled water. I would wonder how could that water where you live could be for plants? What about people who grow vegetables and such? could it affect them?

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  4. Bad. Very verrry bad, for plants and people. But, chlorine disipates as a gas, and usually, if you spray it out the nozzle of a hose, the aeration rate is high, so the chlorine can evaporate. But, a former Brownsville water department employee, said that they were so lousy at chlorine level injection, that sometimes the chlorine levels would kill residents plants or the fish in their aquariums. He and his wife are retired and live in Albany and refuse to drink any city water system, I guess due to his history working in water departments. They have property in eastern Oregon and fill a lot of big ten and five gallon heavy bottles when there, plus they buy ionized or something bulk water from a local dealer. I know a lot of people who do that.

    I had a bad well, in Corvallis, at the junk shack I lived in. Kept testing positive for fecal coliform so I had to haul in water, and that meant I just filled jugs in somebody willing's backyard from their hose and that tasted just fine, to me.

    Not like here! You can smell the water coming!

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  5. Hi Strayer,

    I know this will be expensive and therefore not a viable solution, but shower filters really help with removing chlorine. I just bought an aquasana (came to a total of about $70 or so, I think) shower filter and think it is helping -- I get bad hives etc, so thought I'd try this. Aquasana is one of the more reasonably priced ones and gets good reviews. The problem of course is that they recommend changing the filter every 6 mo and that is expensive (some 40-50 dollars)-- however if you are just one person using it, it should be fine changing once a year. It might be well worth it for you. Also REALLY easy to install.

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  6. I just got a filter for the faucet in the kitchen, haven't installed yet, but will today. Shefali, Whitesocks, I am sorry about what is happening in your home country. I hope all is well there with your family and friends.

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  7. Thank you, Strayer, for asking. I do appreciate your concern. I have family in Mumbai, and from all accounts they are okay, but it is truly heartbreaking to hear about those other 150+ people who have been killed, and the hundreds who are wounded.
    Religion causes so much trouble :(.

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