chloramines improve water quality

Tampa Bay Water uses chloramines to treat drinking water. After initial treatment with a primary disinfectant, small amounts of a secondary disinfectant, or disinfectant residual, must be applied and maintained at all times within the distribution system to kill organisms that could make people sick.

Tampa Bay Water uses chloramines as its secondary disinfectant and continues to use chlorine as its primary disinfectant.

The use of chloramines ensures compliance with the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) stringent health standards. The use of chloramines reduces the formation of suspected cancer-causing compounds, and ensures a consistent water quality throughout Tampa Bay Water’s wholesale system.

The use of chloramines has reduced the level of some regulated disinfection by-products formed when chlorine mixes with trace quantities of naturally occurring organic substances found in water. Specifically, chloramines reduce the formation of trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs), two types of by-products suspected to cause cancer with prolonged exposure.