SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA : MWD Pipe Cleaning to Leave Mild Chlorine Taste

Residents of many Southern California communities can expect a slightly increased smell and taste of chlorine in their drinking water over the next month as the Metropolitan Water District performs its annual pipe cleaning operations.

Each year about this time, the MWD uses chlorine, rather than chloramine, as its principal water disinfectant for about a month, said Bob Gomperz, a water district spokesman.

Being a stronger oxidizer, the chlorine helps break up mineral deposits on pipe walls, but chlorine has a stronger “swimming pool” taste and odor than chloramine, Gomperz said.

The MWD, which provides water to parts of Los Angeles and scores of other Southland communities, stressed that the monthlong switch poses no health or safety problems.