Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
October 11, 2000, Wednesday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B03
LENGTH: 473 words
HEADLINE:
Ammonia to Be Used in Treating D.C., Va. Water
BYLINE:
Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin using ammonia next month
to treat drinking water in the District and Virginia, a move that officials
believe will reduce the risk of cancer linked to a lifetime of drinking
chlorinated water.
The new treatment, which is to be announced today,
also is expected to make drinking water smell less like a swimming pool when
customers tilt a glass of it to their noses.
But the addition of a new
treatment chemical will require some special precautions for people who own fish
tanks and patients who need kidney dialysis treatment. On Nov. 1, the Washington
Aqueduct will begin using a compound of chlorine and ammonia to clean water from
the Potomac River, the source of drinking water for the District, Arlington
County and the Falls Church area. The change is geared to meet tougher federal
water treatment rules that will go into effect in December 2001. The Corps of
Engineers, which owns the aqueduct, is scheduled to announce the treatment plan
at the Dalecarlia Water Treatment Plant in the Palisades neighborhood of
Northwest Washington.
Tom Jacobus, the aqueduct chief, said he
recognizes that some water users will worry about the addition of a new
chemical. "Science has shown no evidence that this process is at all risky,"
Jacobus said. "The reason we're doing this is to lower the chronic health
effects that might be linked to the presence of these disinfectant byproducts."
The compound, chloramine, was first devised for water treatment in the
1960s. Fairfax County has been using it for six years.
The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency recognizes chloramine as an appropriate strategy
for reducing reliance on straight chlorine treatment. The EPA
is lowering the maximum amount of chlorination byproducts it
will allow in treated drinking water, from 100 parts per billion to 80 parts per
billion.
Cynthia Dougherty, director of the EPA's Office of Groundwater
and Drinking Water, said the stricter rules are needed because studies suggest a
relationship between cancer and the byproducts of chlorine
disinfection.
Those byproducts, called trihalomethanes,
are formed when chlorine reacts with water that contains a
large amount of organic material, she said. "We're regulating to be on the
conservative side," she said.
Jacobus said most residents will not be
affected by the new treatment. "Water users out to the west of us have been
using this and never really noticed it," he said.
But fish will die if
the chemical passes through their gills. To remove chloramine, tank water must
be chemically treated.
Similarly, dialysis machines must be able to
remove chloramine before treating patients with kidney problems.
Jacobus
said hospitals, health care providers, pet shop owners and pet associations have
been notified about the change.
LOAD-DATE: October 11,
2000 
