If you live near Piedmont Triad International Airport, on Monday, Nov. 22, you may notice that your water smells or tastes different.
In the rest of the city, water customers may notice similar changes in their water later this month or in early December.
According to the Greensboro Water Resources Department, despite the fact that there may be temporary differences in the color, taste and odor of their city water, this is normal and the quality of the water is not affected.
As part of routine maintenance of the water distribution system, on Monday, Nov. 22, the city will begin the switch from using choramines to stabilize water quality to using free chlorination. The water will continue to meet all federal and state standards for drinking water and is safe for consumption and use. Both chlorinated and chloraminated water are safe for drinking, cooking and general uses.
The switch to free chlorination will be in effect until mid-April when the system will be switched back to using chloramines.
According to the Greensboro Water Resources Department, this is a routine procedure to optimize water quality in the distribution system and Greensboro, Archdale, Burlington, High Point, Jamestown, Randleman, Reidsville and the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority are all participating in this temporary transition from chloramines to free chlorination.
Specialized industries such as medical facilities offering kidney dialysis, owners of fish tanks and ponds, and some businesses that use water in their production process are advised to take precautions during this switch in the water stabilization process and be aware that the change may require adjustments to their usual filtration and treatment systems. The Greensboro Water Resources Department plans to contact these water customers directly and they are advised to seek professional advice on the proper removal methods for chloramies and chlorine.
It is safe, but…….
Kind of like face mask requirements.
So municipal water tastes foul, but don’t worry – it’s fine!
TWO stories just today about bad water supplied by government, including the need to boil the nasty stuff in High Point. Yuck!
In 2004 I moved from a house just outside Greensboro City Limits but which had city water & sewer, into a lovely house in the county with a well. My final water/sewer bill in June 2004 was $75 – a new high. Figuring an annual water rate increase of 5% per annum since then (not excessive for water outside the city), I would have been billed for $24,419 from then to now. In that same period I have had my septic tank pumped twice, which has cost $375 ($175 + $200).
So I am about $24,000 better off – and my water is pure, beautiful, unadulterated – and it doesn’t stink, or need to be boiled because it is so nasty.
Chloramination is not really healthy. It’s done for phony compliance with EPA toxic disinfection by-product rules. And the periodic chlorine burnouts caused by the inadequate disinfection of chloramine are not either. What Greensboro and its water-sharing partners need is filtration of raw water with Granular Activated Carbon to remove excess organic matter from the water. Then it can be disinfected with safer levels of chlorine to meet EPA regulations. For the full story go to https://www.cleanwatergso.org/what-about-chloramine.html
GSO Water Resources should also be warning pregnant women not to drink the high chlorine water as it is harmful to the unborn.
The chlorine should be odorless. If you smell it, what you smell is toxic disinfection by-products.
December? My water has tasted funny, and has smelled funny since I moved to Greensboro. We had the plumbing in the house replaced, and the city has replaced all the pipes in our neighborhood, but it hasn’t helped much. I have a reverse osmosis system and the filter is covered with brown goop in a very short time. My doctor is not surprised that we have so many kidney stones and urinary tract infections in this area. I think the poor water treatment system just has too many people to keep up with.
Trust government? Ask a Native American!
This is not the only thing that smells in Greensboro. We live near the tank farm; we get hints of that sometimes in our water.
Oh, the C-F at W. Market/Guilford College Rd. is still cluttered with barricade cans, and unfinished work. The cans will be yet another make-work job, as they have grown roots and have to be dug up…..
Now let’s do something about the fluoride in the water.
I know the science behind this has been controversial for many decades, largely because it’s not ethical to run experiments on actual humans long-term, but there are examples (recently in China) of fluoride exposure stunting brain development.
Meanwhile, for all the dental association people out there… We get it. But it’s pretty easy to find fluoridated toothpaste these days, for direct tooth application, without forcing me and my kids to ingest it every day.
A little Scotch wouldn’t hurt. If you are cheap, gin works, too.