At a council meeting last week, general manager for Newell Regional Services Corporation Ralph Havinga was on hand to discuss the use of chloramines as a disinfectant for the water supply.
Beginning June 3 NRSC will switch from chlorine as a disinfectant to chloramines.
Chloramines are produced through the addition of ammonia to the water stream leaving the water treatment plant.
The process will involve flushing of various distribution systems to accelerate chloraminated water being introduced to the distribution systems. Monitoring, sampling and testing will occur as the change is put into effect.
“Residents may notice an increase in taste and odour of chlorine for a short time as the water is being exchanged in the distribution system,” said Havinga.
Chloramines have been in use in Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge for a number of years, Canadian Drinking Water Standards, Alberta Environment and Alberta Health Services have approved them for use. Havinga noted that Alberta Environment and Alberta Health were part of the discussions when the plans to make the switch were put in place.
“Due to the distance of communities from the water treatment plant and Brooks chloramines provide an effective and stable disinfection of water,” Havinga told council.
The change in treatment has been advertised in the media recently to ensure consumers are informed.
Advertisements have included a warning to owners of fish tanks.
Chloraminated water cannot be introduced into a fish tank without first removing the ammonia. Fish take in oxygen by washing water over their gills - oxygen from the water moves into the blood through a very thin membrane. Chloramines enter the bloodstream through the same process and cause damage to blood cells.
Local pet stores have been informed about the upcoming change.
Councillor Barry Morishita said that residents have expressed concern that chloramines will interfere with dialysis machines.
“Ammonia will interfere with the uptake of oxygen. Red blood cells are very important in exchanging oxygen, so home dialysis patients or dialysis patients should have chloramines and the ammonia taken out of the water,” confirmed Havinga.
According to Alberta Health Services there are no dialysis patients or home dialysis patients within the whole County of Newell. Brooks Hospital does not treat for dialysis.
Cities that do have chloraminated water employ a process to remove ammonia and chloramines from water before it is used in dialysis. It is equally important to remove chlorine and other contaminants from water used in dialysis.
Mayor Martin Shields clarified that the choice to use the chloramine disinfection process was decided on a number of years ago.
“The decision was made. Enquiries were made as to how it worked with the other municipalities. Now it’s come to the surface again because we’re actually doing it - the people are re-asking the questions because it’s been some time since the decision was made.”
Havinga estimated it would have been around 2007-2008 that the chloramine disinfection was designed into the treatment process.
He said Chloramines were chosen over chlorine because chlorine is not stable for a long period and would not be effective over the vast area that the water plant is servicing.
“With the long, long distances that this water travels from, say the city of Brooks to Rolling Hills or Bassano, chloramines is really the treatment of choice. Otherwise each one of the stations would require the addition of chlorine to meet the same objective.”
Many concerns expressed by residents are based on articles found on the internet.
“I’m cautioning people is to review the source of the information.”
He used the example of one article suggested that chloramines advance the breakdown of rubber gaskets. It is written by a company that makes ‘chloramine resistant’ gaskets.
“There’s a sentence in the article that talks a little bit about temperature but it skips by that right away. In warmer climates, southern States, Mexico - there could be an issue but in the cooler climates I don’t believe there is an issue.”
No reports have come out of Red Deer, Lethbridge or Edmonton saying they had to replace all their rubber gaskets because of breakdown.
Another case that appears on a Google search for the dangers of chloramines is that in 2004 lead levels in the Washington, DC water system were discovered to be close to six times the acceptable amount for drinking water.
The city had started using a chloramine disinfection process in 2001. The cause seems to have been a unique combination of the city’s water composition and the extensive network of lead pipes in the old city’s infrastructure.
On the surface this story sounds terrible, but accounting for the uniqueness of the situation, it is more understandable.
“We’re very, very carefully monitoring the levels and Alberta Environment sets levels that we have to meet for our approval to operate. We cannot exceed those levels. We have all sorts of monitoring devices to monitor this change,” said Havinga.
“We take the safety of our residents very seriously.”
There is also a situation that has come up in Orange County, California where a developer is suing water districts over copper pipe leaks claiming that chloramine treatment is responsible for pinholes in the pipe.
According to the American Water Works Association these pinhole leaks have been reported nationwide, particularly in Maryland, California and Texas. The cause of the corrosion is yet to be determined.
Copper corrosion experts in the U.S. have issued reports that conclude that high temperatures and low pH can create corrosive conditions.
A report by American Water Works Association Research Foundation noted that the switch to chloramines seems to have caused problems in some municipalities but the report cautioned that all factors should be considered.
“We need to integrate all the information we have and look at corrosion control comprehensively to figure out the mechanisms that cause corrosion problems. Contributing factors can include lead, copper, iron, cement, pH, alkalinity and corrosion inhibitors. If we oversimplify, we get into trouble.”
Pipe corrosion is always an issue that needs to be addressed in water distribution systems or any other pipeline based distribution system.
“Water chemistry is not rocket science but it is chemistry - pH and temperature are just two of the thousands of things that interact,” explained Havinga.
“It appears to me that temperature seems to be a factor in other places - we’re in Alberta. We vary between two degrees in the winter to around 18 degrees Celcius in the summer. What I’ve seen is water has to be much warmer than that before we start seeing the corrosive effect of the chloramines.”
Water temperature effects pH (acidity) and a lower pH - which translates to higher acidity - can create a more corrosive atmosphere.
“We have pH control here at the water treatment plant and monitoring.”
More information is available on the NRSC website at www.nrsc.ca. Havinga also recommends the following resources: Health Canada, American Water Works Association, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Canadian Water Works Association.

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