Calif Bill wrote:
"basskisser" wrote in message
oups.com...

Bill Kearney wrote:
I drink my tap water every day! It has the same chlorine as bleach has
in it.

Err, no it doesn't and certainly in nowhere near the same concentration.
But hey, go ahead and give drinking it a try.

Are you REALLY trying to say that my county water doesn't have chlorine
in it??? Really, now, are you?

He
http://www.c3.org/chlorines_everyday_uses/before.html

Which, in part states:
Just as water is essential to life, chlorine is essential to safe
water. Public health officials overwhelmingly agree:

In a 1992 survey of public health officials, 92 percent agreed that
chlorine is crucial to eliminating waterborne diseases, and 87 percent
said they view chlorine as the safest way to assure quality drinking
water.
Experts also agree that chlorine's introduction early this century into
the U.S. drinking water supply is one of history's great public health
advances. Safe, chlorinated water has played a key role in:
a 50 percent-plus increase in life expectancy, from about 45 years in
the early 1900s to about 76 years at present;
a dramatic decline in infant mortality rates; and

the virtual elimination of cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery and
gastroenteritis, as well as many other waterborne diseases which once
killed tens of thousands of Americans.

Or this:
A Water Treatment Primer

Water treatment practices vary in the United States, but there are
generally accepted basic techniques. Source water quality predicates
the kind of treatment required to provide safe water. Therefore,
protecting source water quality is a primary goal.

The treatment choice depends on a number of factors that are site
specific and for which adjustments must be made depending on raw water
quality. Source water quality and turbidity (particulate matter)
levels, water temperature and pH level, and incidence of pathogenic
contaminants must be taken into account for treatment decision making.

Conventional, sequential water treatment for surface water proceeds as
follows: watershed protection program; pretreatment employing
flocculation and sedimentation to remove turbidity, as well as the
organic precursors that form by-products; filtration; disinfection at
an appropriate concentration (C) for a prescribed time (T) (CT
criteria) to destroy harmful organisms; and the addition of chlorine to
maintain residual disinfection throughout the distribution system.
There may also be a need for prechlorination or rechlorination during
storage and/or distribution to ensure that an appropriate residual is
maintained throughout the system.


Table 1. Disinfection Practices in the USA

Disinfectant
Percentage*

Chlorine gas
87.0

No ammonia
67.0

Ammonia added
20.0

Chlorine & hypochlorite
4.5

Chlorine & chlorine dioxide
3.0

Chlorine & chlorine dioxide & ammonia nitrogen
1.5

Hypochlorite
1.5

Chlorine & hypochlorite & ammonia nitrogen
0.75

Chlorine & chlorine dioxide & hypochlorite
0.37

98.6% use chlorine-based disinfectants

Ozone
0.37

Other
0.75

* Percentage of facilities that disinfect
Source: 1989-1990 AWWA Disinfection Committee Survey of Disinfection
Practices

Primary disinfection provides the appropriate CT to inactivate
microbial pathogens. Disinfectants proven effective for this purpose
include free chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone. Secondary
disinfection ensures residual protection to control microorganism
regrowth or recontamination during water storage and distribution.
Either free chlorine or chlorine plus the addition of ammonia to form
chloramine accomplishes this task. Because ozone quickly decomposes in
water, a chlorine-based disinfectant must be added prior to
distribution to provide this second level of protection.

Need some more? Just let me know!
By the way, I keep my pool chlorine level at 3 ppm, my drinking water
here tests at 2 ppm


Chlorine is not required for safe water. Fact is leaves some nasties at
times. Other ways to sanitize water. Bromine, ionization.

Bromine is the WORST pool sanitizer. Yes, it sanitizes well, but leaves
all sorts of problems in it's wake. The ONLY thing that using chlorine
in a pool leaves in terms of "nasties" is chloramines, which are easily
taken care of by shocking or super chlorinating. A lot of people are
duped by their pool supply store, whos only goal is to sell you
products you don't need. Check this out:
http://www.poolsolutions.com

And here's the dope on the bad of Bromine:
I too would be very interested in the answer. You will probably find
it is either liquid bromine or bromine sticks - ie
(Bromochlorodimethylhydantoin - I hope you got all that! BCDMH for
short). In England a few public municipal pools used to operate on
liquid bromine, but to the best of my knowledge they have all now
changed back to chlorine. Bromine sticks are mostly used in
commercial pools (schools, hotels, holiday parks) and privately owned
swimming pools. When reacted with water the BCDMH dissociates into
hypochlorous acid, hypobromous acid and dimethylhydantoin. The first
two are responsible for sanitising the water (primarily the
hypobromous acid). The potentially scarey guy is dimethylhydantoin
which can accumulate to quite high levels. There is no field test for
it - it can only be measured in a lab, so most pools go on regardless,
oblivious of the level in the water. The toxicity of
dimethylhydantoin has not been studied - and that's quite enough to
put me off even before we get to skin rashes