Water disinfectant switch underway

Pat Kimbrough, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·2 min read

Apr. 23—HIGH POINT — It may not be noticeable, but the city of High Point's drinking water is undergoing a change.

The city, along with several other systems in the region, is switching from the temporary use of free chlorine to disinfect the water back to its regular process of using chloramines.

"It's routinely done every year to year-and-a-half. We've kind of gotten on a schedule of switching in the fall and then switching back in the spring," said Derrick Boone, the city's assistant director of public services. "It's better for the system to switch the two types of disinfectants periodically."

It's common practice for systems that use chloramines, which are made up of chlorine and ammonia, to employ a free-chlorine conversion, as High Point did in early December.

That's typically when people notice differences in the smell or taste of the water.

"For us, we probably get more complaints when we go from chloramines to free chlorine — where they notice that odor more of the free chlorine," said Boone.

The switch in disinfection process is done both at the city's Ward Water Treatment Plant and at the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority treatment plant at the Randleman Regional Reservoir.

The city gets most of its water from Oak Hollow and City lakes, but it also is allocated 2.28 million gallons a day from the reservoir.

All of the water authority's members, which include Greensboro, Archdale and Jamestown, switched their disinfection processes at the same time.

The switch back to chloramines should be finished by the end of next week.

"If anyone notices anything unusual, call the customer service line (336-883-3111) and we have our water quality group that can come out," said Boone.