New treatment method spurs new precautions
By John Plestina
Special to the Sun Journal

AUBURN – As the implementation of a new water treatment process nears, kidney dialysis patients, fish owners and retailers with lobster tanks will need to take precautions.

The Auburn Water District will begin using chloramines, a combination of chlorine and ammonia, on Dec. 10.

Norm Lamie, the district’s general manager, explained that when the conversion is made, the entire water system will be flushed.

Some people may notice a stronger chlorine taste or smell, but that would be only temporary during the conversion process.

“In some neighborhoods, they could notice it more for two or three days, from the 10th to the 12th, while the system is being flushed,” Lamie said.

For many years Auburn’s 125-mile water distribution system has been treated solely with chlorine, which is added at Lake Auburn, the city’s drinking water source.

The federal Safe Drinking Water Act requires that chlorine be added to drinking water.

There is a downside.

“Chlorine in contact with water creates disinfection byproducts, including haloacetic acids,” Lamie said.

Those byproducts have caused Auburn to be out of compliance with new federal Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards.

A consulting engineer’s analysis early this year recommended chloramination to reduce the amount of chlorine in the water.

Medical concerns

While there is no known risk associated with drinking water treated with chloramines, they are harmful if they enter the bloodstream through kidney dialysis. There are methods to pre-treat water used for dialysis, which include adding ascorbic acid or by using a granular-activated carbon treatment.

Jerry Lalime manages the Lewiston-Auburn Kidney Center. “We, as a habit, work very closely with water departments. We’re very vigilant about the water,” he said.

The Kidney Center has a sophisticated water filtration system, Lalime said. “We test it every step of the way, and in many cases we test it several times a day.”

The same vigilance is followed for patients doing home dialysis, Lalime said.

Although chloramines present no harm to domestic animals, the treated water could prove fatal to fresh and saltwater fish, lobsters and some reptiles.

Chloramines passing through gills enters the bloodstream and binds to iron in red blood cell hemoglobin, causing a reduction in the capacity of the blood to carry oxygen.

“You don’t have to get bottled water for your aquarium, but there are precautions you have to take,” Lamie said.

The Water District has contacted pet store owners so they can be prepared with products that will take the chlorine out of the water, said Mary Jane Dillingham, water quality manager.

Not a new idea

New to Auburn, chloramination is not a new technology. It has been around since the early 1900s. The Portland Water District has been using it since 1939.

Problems associated with kidney dialysis and home aquariums are two of the drawbacks, said Phil Boissonneault, Portland’s water quality manager.

The benefits have outweighed the drawbacks. “It’s been very effective. It allows us to maintain the leftover chlorine to the end of our system,” Boissonneault said, adding that chloramination also reduces chlorine odors and the chlorine taste as long as the proper doses of chlorine and ammonia are used.

Proposed changes to federal drinking water standards may require dual disinfection systems within a few years. Ultraviolet light to kill bacteria, used in conjunction with chloramination, could satisfy the dual-disinfection standard.

Lewiston is likely to adopt chloramination, too, said Chris Branch, that city’s public works director.

“If we go to ultraviolet, it’s my guess it would be a joint facility. We’re probably looking at five or six years,” Branch said.

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