By JENNIFER COGAN
Updated: 07.10.10The state-mandated switch from ground water to surface water was supposed to begin taking place in NW Houston in December of 2009 and be complete by 2011. Residents initially expressed concern regarding the new way the water would be treated.
“We’ve always had very good, clean ground water right here,” said resident Sue Arkell, “and it’s always been treated with chlorine.”
Arkell, along with several other residents, are concerned that the water is now being pumped in from Houston and is being treated with chloramine, which is essentially chlorine and ammonia.
“We get this letter, that looks like an ad with very small print, saying that it can kill fish, it can be harmful to people on dialysis, it can hurt kids or people with low immune systems; I don’t want to drink that stuff,” she said.
Arkell and her husband Ken immediately bought a home filtration system to prepare for the switch that was supposed to happen by Dec. 16, 2009. Now the couple is concerned with what’s being filtered out.
“The filters are supposed to last three to four months, and I have to change it roughly every ten days,” said Ken Arkell.
The home filtration system the couple purchased is a carbon-based system. It’s hooked up to the ingoing water line. Water is then pumped through a pre-filter and then two large carbon filters before being pumped out their taps.
Arkell held up a brown, sludgy filter.
“This can’t be good. I’m glad I have the filter, otherwise this is what I’d be drinking. It smells horrible, like chlorine, and it’s very expensive to change the filters,” he said.
The Arkell’s are concerned that the sludge from the filter is from the miles of pipe the water must go through in order to get to their tap, but Barbara Payne, spokesperson for the North Harris County Regional Water Authority, explained that new pipe was installed to avoid that problem.
“It was a huge and amazing undertaking. We replaced over 75 miles of pipe (in Northwest Houston),” she said.
Payne, who lives in the same area as the Arkell’s, said that she hasn’t noticed any particulate in her water and feels very comfortable drinking it.
“Now the pipes in their neighborhood haven’t been replaced and they’re 30 years old, but like I said, I live there and I feel perfectly safe drinking the water,” said Payne.
Arkell has sat in on board meetings and called Water District 52 to voice her concerns. She has also requested to have her water tested.
“But no one’s ever come out. I even left water samples outside for them to pick up and no one ever came,” she said.
Though Arkell’s neighborhood was supposed to switch from ground to surface water in December, Delise Keim, vice president of communications for Southwest Water, said that the switch hasn’t been made yet.
“They are not yet using surface water. They have switched over the chloramine, though,” she said.
A chemist at Lone Star College, who asked that her name not be used, explained that chloramine is formed when ammonia bonds to chlorine. It’s an inexpensive way to kill bacteria in the water, but, she said, it cannot be filtered out.
“It can be treated out with metabisulfite, which is what a lot of home brewers use, but it cannot be filtered out,” she said.
The Sun asked the chemist what it could do to a human body. Ultimately, while communities across the country have been using chloramine in small doses for years, no studies regarding long-term effects have been done and so the Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t gotten involved.
“I don’t know what it can do to humans,” she said, “but I can tell you what (chloramine) does to pipes. It erodes them; it separates the metal. While it’s not an acid, it does have acidic results, so you can imagine what it could do to the intestines.”
The metabisulfite, she said, turns the chloramine into a semi-solid, a gel-like substance, and that allows for it to be filtered out.
She did say, however, that her water comes from the City of Houston, and she feels comfortable drinking the water.
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