Chlorination of Water

by Joseph Race

Colic. Although claims have been made that the consumption of chlorinated water has produced “colic” no corroborative evidence has been adduced and the symptoms have probably been due to some other cause. Dilute solutions of chlorine have been used as intestinal antiseptics in the treatment of typhoid fever without producing irritation of the mucous lining and the usual dose for this treatment is one grain of chlorine. Before taking a medicinal dose of chlorine 140 gallons of water containing 0.1 p.p.m. would have to be consumed, a quantity greater than is ordinarily drunk in a year.

Chlorine and hypochlorites are destructive and irritant to skin and it is possible that hot chlorinated water has, in some instances, a similar effect.

It is inconceivable that the addition of minute traces of bleach or chlorine to water should cause it to extract abnormal amounts of tannin from tea but it is possible that free chlorine, when present, acts upon the tea extractives and produces compounds having obnoxious tastes and odours. Tannin to the ordinary tea drinker represents the disagreeable portion of the tea and an obnoxious taste in tea brewed with chlorinated water would consequently be ascribed to the extraction of abnormal quantities of tannin.

Almost all waterworks departments using chlorination have received complaints to the effect that the water had killed fish and small birds. There is usually no evidence that the loss was due to chlorinated water but it is generally impossible to convince the owners that the process of water treatment was not the cause. Many continuous physiological tests have been made of the effect of chlorinated water on small fish and have shown that the concentration used in water treatment is without effect. The author kept a tank of minnows in one of the pumping stations for months without loss although the tank was continuously supplied with water that had been treated but a few seconds previously. The bleach solution was discharged into the suction of the pumps and the water for the fish test was taken from the discharge header.

It has been found on many occasions that fish are extremely susceptible to chlorine and hypochlorites. This knowledge has been sometimes used for such nefarious purposes as fish poaching, a few pounds of bleach in a small stream being a simple and most effective method of killing all the fish which are then carried down stream into a convenient net. Chlorinated sewage effluents have also been known to destroy the fish life of the stream into which they were discharged.

The opinion of fish culturists as to the action of chlorinated waters upon fish eggs in hatcheries is almost unanimously to the effect that it is a destructive one. Fish eggs are extremely sensitive to chlorine and hypochlorous acid and very few will survive in a water containing 0.1 p.p.m. of free chlorine. The Department of Fisheries of the Dominion of Canada has informed the author that free chlorine in the water had a marked adverse effect on the hatching of the eggs of Atlantic salmon, Great Lake trout, pickerel, and whitefish, but no effect was noticed when free chlorine was absent. The Department has, however, decided to remove all the hatcheries to localities where water that does not require chlorination can be obtained.

The effect of chlorinated water upon seeds, plants, and flowers has been investigated by the Dominion Department of Agriculture and Dr. Gussow (Dominion Botanist) and Dr. Shutt (Agricultural Chemist) who were in charge of the work, have reported that water treated with hypochlorite caused no apparent injury to carnations and hybrid roses. Six varieties of wheat seed, after soaking in freshly prepared hypochlorite solutions (0.05 to 10 parts per million of available chlorine) were all sown on the same day. Germination was found to be uniform throughout and no effect of the chlorine was observed either as regards the rate of germination or the development of the young plants. Experiments on barley and oats produced similar results. Radishes, turnips, cucumbers, and beans also showed no retardation in development after treatment with chlorinated water.

These experiments were conducted with solutions of bleach in distilled water, but identical results were obtained in a later series when the treated city supply (Ottawa) was used.

The results proved conclusively that statements alleging damage to plants, flowers, and seeds by the hypochlorite treatment of water are unfounded and do not merit the slightest consideration.

Corrosion of Pipes. Chlorinated water, it has been alleged on many occasions, causes rapid corrosion of galvanised iron water services and especially of the water tubes of boilers, water heaters, etc. When bleach is used for water treatment, a slight increase in the hardness is produced but as this is mostly due to calcium chloride, there is no corresponding increase in the salts that form a protective coating. The presence of traces of calcium chloride and chloro-organic compounds might tend to increase the corrosive properties of a water but this increase is probably so small as to be negligible.