Why Does Amarillo’s Water Have A Strong Chlorine Smell?

In my time on this Earth, I've had the opportunity to live in many different states and cities. That has its up's and down's, but I've gotten to experience a lot of different things. Different climates, different cultures, etc. Amarillo has been one of my most interesting cities I've lived in for a myriad of reasons.

I've also gotten the opportunity to taste a lot of different types of tap water. When you're a kid, you don't think too much about it unless it's just absolutely terrible. You're outside playing a lot, you get thirsty, then you just turn the tap on for a quick drink to go back outside and play.

As I've gotten older though, I've started to understand a bit more as to why people buy bottled water instead of just using the faucet. Now that's not to say that the water that comes out of the faucet isn't drinkable. Some places you wouldn't know the difference between water from the tap or a bottle.

Amarillo does not seem to be one of those places, and recently, I've noticed the water we use from the faucet or in our showers has been a bit different.

Maybe I'm alone here, maybe I'm not, but I've noticed a stronger smell of chlorine these days. It's an undeniable scent, you smell it often when you're swimming in a pool. However, I don't know that I should be really smelling it when I take my showers.

See, water that is processed through a city obviously has to go through treatment before it's usable or drinkable. So I started to dig into how much chlorine is considered normal in tap water. I found that a normal level is between 0.5 to 2.0 ppm.

I then looked up the water report from the City of Amarillo that they put out yearly. This report lists everything found in the water you use and drink from the faucet.

What I found didn't exactly surprise me based on what I've been noticing recently. The average level of chlorine used in Amarillo's water is sitting at 1.88 ppm, pushing the edge of what is considered normal chlorine usage in the water.

The max level used actually blows by it coming in at 2.76 ppm. Now, I don't know anything about water treatment, so I'm not going to sit here and wax poetic about it. However, I feel like the level of chlorine in Amarillo's water could be taken down a notch, couldn't it?

Or is the water that we utilize so bad that it needs an abundance of treatment? I was blown away by how many different chemicals are used to treat the water. While I'm sure it's the same anywhere you go, I know for a fact that other cities and states use a lot less of this stuff to treat their water.