What's that smell in your water? Fayetteville PWC can tell you all about it.

I like Nextdoor, the social media site where people can share and keep track of what’s going on in their neighborhood.

Though it does have its critics.

You get to see how paranoid some of your neighbors are. Some days it seems like every third or fourth post is what people saw on their Ring doorbell camera.

One of my favorite comments about Nextdoor was: "One of the worst things about Nextdoor is finding out what my neighbors think."

I believe that commenter was speaking of political views.

That chlorine smell

Still, lots of useful info is shared on NextDoor, too.

For example: Have you noticed a chlorine smell in your water? Our house has not had the problem, but a woman on NextDoor did and posted about it. Someone replied to say it was part of an annual water treatment process by the Public Works Commission and, helpfully, posted a link from our hometown utility explaining what was what.

I like it when people post links with good information. Seems a small thing, but in this age of misinformation, it’s important. That’s peak NextDoor for me.

Ammonia begone. Well, for a month. Mostly.

Anyway, PWC on March 1 began its annual water treatment changeover, which means it stopped adding ammonia to its treatment process, according to a news release. It will resume adding ammonia on April 1. 

The pause is required by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality “to ensure that any biological growth that may have occurred within the distribution system is controlled.” 

Controlling biological growth — sounds good to me.

The PWC warns that some people will notice a chlorine odor due to the change.

“Some users of water may also experience periods of discolored water as a result of the required distribution-system flushing that will accompany this change back to chlorine-only disinfection,” the release continues. “Fire hydrants on the PWC water distribution system will be opened periodically throughout the month to flush the system.”

The utility adds that traces of ammonia may still be in the water. Customers who pretreat their water to remove chloramines — a disinfectant — before they use the water, should keep that up. 

Keeping byproducts at bay

The PWC says the ammonia helps reduce the bad effects of disinfection caused by byproducts like trihalomethane, which results when chlorine contacts organic matter.

"The one-month return to chlorine-only disinfection is not expected to cause any significant increases in disinfection by-products," the release states. "PWC has been in compliance with all disinfection by-product limits since beginning the addition of ammonia in March of 2003."

If you would like to know more, and who wouldn’t, visit PWC’s site.

Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.