Chloromine in water?

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

How does Chloromine affect drinking water quality?

Thanks

[RichardParticipant]

This is one area I can speak on with some authority. I am a chemist currently going for my masters in environmental analytical chemistry.

There is no “chloromine”, so I can only assume you mean chlorine. Chlorine oxides are biocides, meaning they kill bacteria by permeating the cell membrane, and causing those cells to explode (via a large increase in internal osmotic pressure). At low levels you shouldn’t taste the chlorine, but if you are concerned, you can always install a water filter under sinks that eliminate chlorides, as well as other compounds. Hypochlorites are what you usually taste when you accidently drink pool water. While its not dangerous per se, it leaves a nasty taste. If you DO decide to put water filtration under the sinks, just remember that they have to be maintained as per manufacturers schedule. A dirty filter, or one that needs regeneration (in the case of ion-exchange resins) is WORSE than not having a filter, since all the materials trapped in the filter will be released into your drinking water (the same goes for air filtration devices as well).

The Friendly Chemist

[daveroconnParticipant]

Trihalomethanes (THM)
This poses one of the largest threats to populations of people who reside in municipalities that use primarily surface water treated with chlorine. Trihalomethanes (THM’s) are the byproducts of chlorine’s use in treating drinking water, what is left of the chlorine after it kills bacteria reacts with the dead organic content in the water. Portions of the residual become trihalomethanes. Chloroform is the best known example. THM’s cause 10,000 cases of colon and bladder cancer annually. The chlorine industry strenuously opposes closer regulation of THM’s. The detected increases of THM’s presence in numerous large-scale water treatment systems have sparked the use of chlorimine for disinfecting. Chlorimines residual does not react with the remaining dead organic content like chlorine. The result is less THM’s present in the finished drinking water. One drawback to the use of chlorimine is that it needs a longer contact time with granular activated carbon (GAC) filters to be removed from the water. This posed a huge problem to the kidney dialysis industry that uses treated tap water for process makeup water. Because many facilities would use water treated with GAC filtration sized for chlorine removal. The longer contact time for the removal chlorimine required resizing of pretreatment.

[Author]

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