Available Alternatives

Effective alternatives to chloramines will vary with the type and quality of source water, size and capability of the treatment plant. 

Generally, these are the alternatives C.I.C. believes are reasonable to meet EPA standards, PAWC’s distribution needs and the health and environmental concerns of their customers.

• since all of the chemical alternatives create toxic byproducts, none of them are acceptable alternatives when non-chemical alternatives exist.
• reverse osmosis is not a reasonable or economical alternative as it requires a huge amount of water and electricity .
• Currently PAWC only filters out 35% of the organic material in the source water before chlorine is added.
• With additional or more effective filtration before chlorine is added, PAWC could reduce the organic material by more than 90% which would reduce the amount of byproducts formed with chlorine and allow PAWC to meet Stage 2 regulations without adding ammonia.
• PAWC has long lines which make it difficult for the chlorine to remain in the line to the last house.

By reducing the organic material in the source water, less chlorine would be required to disinfect the water at the plant.  More chlorine could be used in the distribution line without increasing the byproduct production.  PAWC already has booster plants along the longest lines to inject additional chlorine to assure coverage to the last house.  PAWC intends to tear down these booster plants if they use chloramines. 

EVERYONE agrees that chlorine is the best and most effective disinfectant for water treatment.  It can be used safely with the use of better filtration.

Chloramine is not as effective as chlorine in killing viruses and bacteria. It is 20,000 less effective in killing e-coli and 100,000 times less effective in killing rotaviruses than chlorine.

Chloramine creates some of its most toxic byproducts in the distribution line, byproducts that chlorine does not create.

IT IS NOT DISPUTED that within 3 to 5 years EPA will likely regulate the byproducts of chloramines and PAWC and other water companies will have to change their treatment system again.

With proper filtration, PAWC would not need to be concerned about future regulations of these other chemicals.

Using chloramines requires the constant purchase, transportation and storage of ammonia, a hazardous substance identified by Homeland Security as a chemical of concern for terrorism.

A new Nano-filtration system including electropositive media and carbon filter is capable of removing nano sized particles and contaminants at high flowrates, which would outperform the ultra and micro-filtration systems.