re: #38 Charles Johnson

MMS creates chlorine dioxide.

My town doesn’t normally treat water at all (only when we fail a microbe test). When we do, we use Clorox concentrate (8% sodium hypochlorite, rather than the usual strength of Clorox).

Chlorine dioxide is allowed to be used, but is much more dangerous to handle and has to be more closely monitored, with a warning sent out to water customers and the state government if the maximum permitted (the maximum residual disinfectant level) is exceeded in any water test.

The maximum allowed is 0.8mg/L in a water system. This is significantly below what MMS strength is mixed to.

The warning a town using chlorine dioxide as a disinfectant which exceeds the state limit is:

Some infants and young children who drink water containing chlorine dioxide in excess of the MRDL could experience nervous system effects. Similar effects may occur in fetuses of pregnant women who drink water containing chlorine dioxide in excess of the MRDL. Some people may experience anemia.

Add for public notification only:The chlorine dioxide violations reported today include exceedances of the Department of Health and Human Services Regulation and Licensure standard within the distribution system that delivers water to consumers. Violations of the chlorine dioxide standard within the distribution system may harm human health based on short-term exposures. Certain groups, including fetuses, infants, and young children, may be especially susceptible to nervous system effects from excessive chlorine dioxide exposure.

These chowderheads want to drink many times the allowable limit in a public water supply.

If we used chlorine dioxide in our public water system and we exceeded the state maximum at any one test point, we would be required to send out the notification to all the customers, and send a so-called Level 1 report to the state (essentially a five-alarm fire).

They would tell us to dump our water tower and flush the town’s water lines, refill everything, and keep doing it until we tested within the state maximum.