People drinking tap water across the Miami area this week may notice the smell and taste of chlorine as Miami-Dade launches the annual cleaning of its underground pipes.
Like most water systems across the country, Miami-Dade regularly uses chlorine to disinfect the drinking water it sends to roughly 2.3 million people each day.
But for cleansing every year, it switches to a different type of chlorine known as “base chlorine,” which tends to have a more detectable taste and odor.
“People call every year after the first couple of days” of testing, said Adriana Lamar, spokeswoman for Miami-Dade’s Water and Sewer Department.
“It depends on how far you are from the plant,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control says the shift from chloramine to base chlorine is common, and allows water systems to clean out a “scum” layer that can form in pipes that makes “killing germs more difficult.” Erik Olson, director of health programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the shift to regular chlorine is a fairly common tactic in water systems across the country and should not raise concerns.
As a result, water systems typically make a brief shift to base chlorine and then flush out the system, often using fire hydrants.
“The bottom line is it’s not a problem, as long as it’s short-term,” he said.
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