New Municipal Water Sanitizer?

[Rocco Moretti]

I caught a bit on the news last night that some cities (Washington D.C.
was mentioned) are changing the chemicals they use for sanitizing water.
The reasoning was that chlorine may be dangerous in case of a terrorist
attack. As 90+% of the population aren't aquarists, they didn't give any
details on what chemicals are going to be used instead of chlorine.

Is this just a case of switching from chlorine to chloramine, or is some
new chemical going to be used? It might be my fishy-bias, but my gut
reaction is that chloramine isn't any less dangerous than chlorine is.

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

Rocco Moretti wrote:

>
> I caught a bit on the news last night that some cities (Washington D.C.
> was mentioned) are changing the chemicals they use for sanitizing water.
> The reasoning was that chlorine may be dangerous in case of a terrorist
> attack. As 90+% of the population aren't aquarists, they didn't give any
> details on what chemicals are going to be used instead of chlorine.

Just give them a ring, they are required to tell you what they use. They
may have it on a web site too. Your water bill should have the phone
number / URL on it.