Annette Smith
Chloramine is created by adding ammonia to chlorinated water. It is an engineering solution that effectively stops the formation of two classes of regulated disinfection byproducts — haloacetic acids (HAAs) and trihalomethanes (THMs). Chlorinated water has other disinfection byproducts that are not regulated. Chloramine forms disinfection byproducts that are not regulated.
Rutland is considering using chloramine because it is the least expensive way to meet EPA regulations. Engineers love it.
Public health and the environment are not helped by chloramine. Unlike chlorine, which dissipates within 24 hours, chloramine is very stable and remains in the water more than 30 days. Duluth, Minnesota, experienced a chloraminated water main break in July that killed brook trout and aquatic life. The state fisheries biologist estimated recovery would take at least three years.
One water district in Vermont uses chloramine. When the Champlain Water District (CWD) began using it in the mid-2000s, Vermonters for a Clean Environment was contacted by citizens who said the water was making them sick. They had been in touch with San Francisco-area citizens who had the same experience. One person passed out in the shower, others had rashes like chemical burns, some had gastrointestinal problems. Water District, Health Department and EPA officials laughed at them.
This resulted in a multi-year investigation during which we worked with Chittenden County residents, state agency officials, legislators, university and EPA scientists, outside consultants, and citizens in other states to try to understand what was happening. Why were some people getting sick, and others weren’t? Was adding ammonia to chlorinated water causing health effects?
The only way people could figure out if the chloraminated water was making them sick was to stop using it for drinking, cooking, laundry and bathing.
The CWD serves about 60,000 people in the towns around Burlington, but not Burlington. Some people purchased bottled spring water, and went to the YMCA in Burlington to shower. To a person, they stopped having the health effects. Citizens distributed informational flyers to people’s homes. During the first year, 100 people reported they thought their water was causing problems, 200 the second, 300 the third year. A cheese factory worker got rashes so bad he quit his job. A woman who was about to have gastrointestinal surgery got the flier, stopped using her water, her symptoms disappeared, so she didn’t have the surgery. Some people reported going from doctor to doctor, getting a battery of tests, medications, ointments and inhalers that did not help. Doctors could not find any literature to support the idea chloraminated water would make people sick.
We learned that, when chloraminated water was anticipated to be used in more public water systems, EPA scientists wrote in 1978, “The primary unresolved question is, what are the health effects of chloramines? … more should be known concerning the potential toxicity of chloramines. … Research should be directed to the health effects of chloramines. …” That research was never done.
Vermont’s investigation into chloramine involved Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources bringing national experts to an all-day forum, testimony in Vermont’s Legislature, a statewide study that looked at all the state’s water systems, a stakeholder process with the CWD, ANR, Health Department and citizens. VCE conducted testing in the homes of CWD water users who were, and were not, having problems, and in Burlington, to try to identify differences in the water as it came into people’s homes.
At the meeting during which the consultants reported the results of their studies of the state water systems, we talked with one of the top researchers. I had come to the conclusion chloramine is a mucous membrane irritant, and it was the interaction between people’s body chemistry and chloramine that resulted in some people getting sick, while others didn’t. The researcher said it was a likely possibility. Everyone is different. This was consistent with the San Francisco citizens’ experience, where people of certain ethnicities were more affected.
Then Grand Isle planned to use chloramine. Erin Brockovich’s water expert came to Vermont to provide public education. Brockovich says chloramine has no place in public water because it is ineffective, toxic, corrosive, causes genetic damage, and more. Public records showed the Vermont Health Department told the Grand Isle water board not to mention chloramine. Much fuss occurred, with the end result Grand Isle now uses granular activated carbon and has the best water treatment system in Vermont.Chlorine is cheap and easy to filter out of water.
Chloramine is difficult and expensive to filter out.
Annette Smith is executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment and lives in Danby.