So how many of you out there missed the switch from chlorine to chloramine for disinfection of our drinking water? I started looking into it when I happened across an article in Salon.com November of last year that spoke about the connection between increased levels of lead in the water and the switch to chloramine disinfection.
So what exactly is chloramine? Chlorine and ammonia. And why was the disinfection method of our drinking water changed? Because the chlorine by-products, called THMs (trihalomethanes), are "associated" with various types of cancer and miscarriages. (That's another way of saying that they just are not ready to admit the connection and its far-reaching health consequences.) The EPA introduced stage 1 and stage 2 of the "Disinfection Byproducts Rule" in response to those concerns.
Well, sounds good on the surface...but down in the depths of the watery details, interesting phenomena show up. The first would be increased lead levels in the water. This is caused by the chloramine leaching lead from old pipes, brass fixtures, and anywhere it can get it. This feels like a kind of pick your poison situation to me. Live with the THMs or get lead in exchange. Except we are not in charge of the decision, the EPA is.
The second consequence that has been showing up has been elastomer degradation of rubber washers, toilet flappers, backflow gaskets, washing machine gaskets, etc. There has since been a growing market in chloramine resistant products of this sort. Better to keep the people healthy even if the washers and gaskets suffer, I suppose.
All this makes good water filtration more important that ever, ideally a point of entry system to protect all the various rubberized products that could be affected by chloramine, and a filtration system that is good at removing not only lead, but ammonia, too. The chlorine and ammonia in chloramine separate, and ammonia is very difficult to filter out without a whole house GAC filtration system.
I looked up my local Municipal Water District, and sure enough, they have been using Chloramine since 2002, though the water report does not show high lead levels. The LA water district has actually been using chloramines since the 1980's, so in some areas it is not a recent change. The increased lead levels are scary, and have been popping up all over, in D.C., Massachusetts, Maine, Oregon, Michigan and Rhode Island. Perhaps those areas have a higher likelihood of having older lead pipes. These folks in San Francisco have formed an organization to educate and warn people about chloramine dangers. Sure...it improves the taste and reduces the THMs, but haven't we just traded one group of health concerns and disadvantages for another?
