I live in the deep Spain, and nobody really cares about our (I mean our neighborhoods) water…

I originally tested the water because it reeked of bleach. That, and the fact that now they have shut the chlorine off and the measurements have fallen to zero while denying any problem, help me be confident that although I don’t accurately know how much, there is too much.

Sorry, it was a quick way to call the injectors of chlorine into the pipes.

Why do you think they have refused to come and test the water at my entrance and still they have stopped injecting chlorine despite them assuring their readings are perfect, and then let the water run to fill the pipes with “zeroed” water? It would a 5 minute time operation to check my water, and yet… 🤔

The water comes from a dam, gets chlorine in town and then travel a long way till it gets to the water tank in our neighborhood (400 households), it get chlorinated again (it is so far it get to that point with not enough residue) and then gets distributed to each zone and house.

As I say, we use strips in medicine everyday and they are reliable, it is a chemical reaction that can be measured, so I cannot dismiss the results, because they are also on par with the organoleptic features of the water and our signs and symptoms of intoxication. Of course in going to go further and lab-test it, but the chance to measure it when it was high has been precious, for now that we have warned the providers they have turned the chlorinator off and the water has now zero levels of the three of them.

Thank you.

I have the activated carbon filter, a big blue 20” one, and perhaps that could ease the effects. We are going to daily test the water now with the strips, and when/if the results are high, we will quantify it accurately with the Hanna HI97771 we have just bought.

Thanks, the regulators know about us but as they send the water in the right conditions and then we re-treat them they cannot take responsibility for it.

Amazon, looked for the one with the most solid (relatively considering it is not professional) reviews.

I have asked them the name of the product used. Answer: I cannot tell you. Super-reliable.

Water is very lacking of calcium, so hardness is spot on. I can’t tell about alkalinity, though.

I don’t mind spending 150€ in a more advanced device, though. If I can’t trust my providers accuracy on measurements I will have to test the water myself with accurate equipment.

They are not the most accurate but definitely the are most at-hand method available. We also tested with DPD and got the same result, have tested on several homes at our neighborhood with exactly the same results.

As a physician we use color stripes for diagnosing UTI’s and although not as accurate as an uroculture (which is the Gold Standard) it has been proven reliable. We also use pH stripes for reassuring nasogastric tubings are on stomach.

I understand what you say about bromine as a byproduct. Thanks.

There is only one storage tank that receives the water from town and rechlorinates the water so it gets to the houses with safe levels.

I have contacted with them (I highly doubt their capabilities managing this matter) and first they have denied the chance of having a problem, and then they have refused to come to our house to confirm or discard the measurements (one of the reasons to not trust them). When we have checked it is a widespread problem they have closed the chlorine faucet and the the water comes with ZERO CHLORINE AND BROMINE…

The regulators are coming tomorrow to accurately measure the levels. I’ll let you know the outcomes.

I have managed to get tomorrow the public health service home to do the measurements with advanced, calibrated methods. I’ll keep you updated. 👌

Which I have found these last days 🤔

I was thinking about something like pool lab 1.0 or 2.0 to be able to measure more items.

I know, but it is Sunday evening and I could not do anything else. Tomorrow I’m doing further testing, but again once they have shut the chlorine source there won’t be really much to measure.

Government testers came home and checked the Chlorine (didn’t have bromine test). Long story short: we were right, but as the responsables of the water took measures to solve the problem and the water has lost chlorine during these two days, the levels had gone down. The highest we have measured has been 1.84ppm.

PS: we tested with our stripes the same water that they used for the test and the result was SPOT ON: the colour was clearly between 1 and 3, so we were right and the levels were dangerously high.

Now we have to watch closely the levels to detect a new surge and warn the government so they can check it before they amend the water again.

Tabs on water with sight colour reading

They have denied any issue, saying it is just me (which is not the case) and yet they have shut off the chlorine and washed the pipes, so the (not) excess of chlorines goes off and not informing about what the issue was (they still deny it) or what measures have been taken.

They are not from the industry, it is just a bunch of neighbors that have formed the directive and have hired someone who’s CV is unknown and that, for example, removes the locks from the reading boxes without permission and tell you “I don’t have time to opening and closing every single one, so I leave them open”, leading to freezing pipes and waterless homes in winter.

They are nowhere professionals

As I told the other redditer, they have denied it to me and just say that the chlorine measurements on their checkpoints are at 0,95ppm, which leads me to think that there is an underestimated reading that leads the chlorinator to add more chlorine to the tank.

Because they have shown in the past to try to hide mistakes so they can’t get blamed for health issues that come from their lack of knowledge, just the way they are doing now. Otherwise they would have sent the technician home the first moment we warned about a possible surge of chlorine or bromine.

Besides that, the “technician” who does de job doesn’t seem to have any degree of studies in the matter.

The problem is that they will want to know just to scheme for masking the problem as if nothing ever happened, as that are already doing (closing the chlorine/bromine supply and opening endpoints at the pipes to wash the overtreated one while denying the existance of the problem).

Is DPD also innacurate? Because it has thrown the same result on Chlorine.

I understand but on a weekend there was no chance of doing that, and although not the best measurement method, they have proven to be reliable enough not to discard the results.