Nothing Like The Smell of Chlorine in the Morning…

Photo courtesy of
‘Preparation.’
courtesy of ‘Cameron Cassan’

Our friends over at Prince of Petworth recently asked the question “Why does a swimming pool come out of my faucet?” and an anonymous commenter delivered the news: From February 1st until May 17th, DC WASA changed the disinfectant used in its water treatment process from chloarmine (NH2Cl) to chlorine.

Chloramine is used for most of the year because it is far more stable than free chlorine and lacks the smell of chlorine. Chloramine is toxic to certain animals (e.g. fish) and is one of the reasons you need to age the water a few days or use product to make it safe. However, Chloramine is not as effective at sanitizing as free Chlorine. So WASA is effectively shocking the system.

You can read the DC WASA press release for more info

John has lived in DC since attending CUA’s Architecture school starting in 1995. He is a UI/UX/Design guru for LivingSocial and also plays in numerous bands (Juniper Lane, Rotoscope, Boboroshi & Kynz) and loves hyping people on eating local food, sustainable human settlement patterns, gardening, and good old fashioned rock and roll and electronica. He runs the dirt lab (aka mega garden) for WeLoveDC, where he eats most of the proceeds.

2 thoughts on “Nothing Like The Smell of Chlorine in the Morning…

  1. Thank $deity for this explanation. I noticed the smell weeks ago and asked my building’s management if they’d done anything to the water (they hadn’t). I was aware WASA did this every year, but I thought they waited until it got warmer before starting.