By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A new city water treatment process will mean better-tasting tap water but could be a concern for dialysis patients and people with fish or lobster tanks.

The city will begin injecting ammonia into the municipal system at Main Street on March 1. Combined with the chlorine injected at Lake Auburn, it will create a chloramine compound, a longer-lasting disinfectant with fewer side effects.

“The water is still safe to drink,” said Kevin Gagne, deputy director of public services. “It’s safe to bathe in. It’s safe for all the normal household uses.”

But chloramine treatments are longer-lasting than chlorine treatments.

“It doesn’t dissipate the way chlorine does,” Gagne said. People who keep tropical fish can leave chlorinated water out overnight, allowing the chlorine to disperse.

That won’t work once ammonia is added.

“They’ll have to invest in a water conditioner for their fish, or a filter that removes the chemical from the system as it comes into the house,” Gagne said. The compound can also kill lobsters kept in tanks. Water used in dialysis treatment of kidney patients must be filtered, as well.

Gagne said the change won’t be a budget-trimmer for the city, but it will help meet Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

“Chlorine creates byproduct chemicals, and those byproducts are regulated by the EPA,” Gagne said. Stricter federal rules mean the city needs to reduce those byproducts.

“We’ve been tracking them for years, and those byproducts have been slowly increasing,” he said. “So, we’re making this move to interrupt that trend.”

Auburn began treating its water with ammonia last year. Nine other Maine cities, including Portland and Bangor, use the same process.

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