GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

12-07-2003, 04:20 PM

(paghat) wrote in
m:

When chlorine has evaporated it leaves salts behind. To repeatedly add
chlorine to one's soils does leave a residue that increases with time,
until eventually the soil could be harmed.

It's not the chlorine evaporating that's the problem. The problem is
whatever crap that is already in the water becomes chlorinated crap, which
is probably the residue you are talking about. Any excess free chlorine
escapes into the air eventually. Don't know how chloramines (if your city
uses them) differs.

Here are some of the health risks to chlorinated water -- the reason
so many either filter their water with EPA approved filters, or buy
purer water in five gallon containers for the water cooler:

Personally, I filter my water because of any heavy metal or other not
necessarily chlorine crap in it.

1) Chlorine kills soil microbes without which plants cannot access
nutrients in the soil.

2) Binds with other chemicals in the soil creating toxins with unknown
risk factors. Some of the risk factors that ARE known are pretty
extreme. Bonded chemicals ir Chlorination Byproducts in tapwater are
associated with birth defects from drinking it while pregnant, & with
miscarriages. Infant neural tube defects DOUBLE from drinking
chlorinated water. Miscarriages rise to 15.7% in women who drink
tapwater with chlorinatation byproduct, from the 9.5% for women who do
not drink tapwater.

The city of Chesapeake Virginia was sued due to something in the water that
allegedly caused a lot of miscarriages. I believe it was excess chlorine
that reacted with organic crud already in the water to form
trihalomethanes. It's not something you want in your kool-aid.

5) As tropical fish hobbyists have long known, chlorine in tap water
kills fish. It kills amphibians much more readily, even in amounts
that would seem inconsequential, though consequential enough to kill
you if you're a frog or salamander.

It's been a long time since I've had fish, but if you leave the water out
in the open for a like a day or so, the chlorine dissipates enough for the
fish to tolerate it. That might be for regular fish, not necessarily
tropical. It's bad for fish and amphibians because they use the dissolved
oxygen in water for respiration. When there is chlorine in the water,
that's tantamount to forcing them to breath chlorine.

12) some of the specific CPBs (alternatively called DPBs, Disinfectant
Byproducts) are chloroform, bromodichloromethane,
dibromochloromethane, bromoform, dichloroacetic acid & trichloroacetic
acid -- there are many other possible CPB contaminants.

The first four, going by name, are trihalomethanes (THMs).

But even if we decide to trust our municipalities are getting it
right, & monitoring even the CBPs correctly, we'll be undoing their
good work by any additional home chlorination.

I don't think it's too bad to clean out the algae in a fountain with the
ocassional bleaching, but to systematically home chlorinate the drinking
water, that's not something I would do. If algae are a problem, there's
probably organic matter in contact with water somewhere. Find out where
they are getting their nitrogen and stop it. (of course if they've
developed a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen fixing bacteria, then you
are screwed, sorry).

Even if the water is not for drinking, the chlorinated by-products are
going to end up some where.

Whether "Garden Water Filters" such as AquaMate are all that helpful,
I don't know, but many people knowing the risks are real for human,
wildlife, & plantlife, are using such products. I just water my lawn
from the tap & hope for the best, but I sure wouldn't ADD chlorine to
the brew myself.

It is also puzzling to me that people can take such a strong dislike
to algae. Floating algae maybe, it ruins visibility, but algae is not
the devil that chemicals can be.

Because algae is wet and slimy, like mucal nasal discharges, only more
green, whereas chemicals are 'pure', 'refined' and quite sanitary in their
nice clean delivery containers.

Halogenically yours,

-- Salty