Michael Neibauer
Washington Examiner
January 13, 2010
[efoods]The main disinfectant in the drinking water of nearly 1 million D.C. and Northern Virginia residents is being switched by the Army Corps of Engineers to thwart the threat of terrorists releasing deadly chlorine gas.
The switch will be from chlorine gas to a liquid form of chlorine called sodium hypochlorite. Both are equally effective, according to the Washington Aqueduct, an arm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But the liquid, “is considered much safer to transport, store and use than gaseous chlorine,” said an official.
Chlorine and water disinfection “may be the best thing to happen to the world” in the last 100 years, Thomas Jacobus, Washington Aqueduct general manager, told The Examiner. But the gaseous chlorine that currently is being used is potentially deadly if released; it was used in World War I as a choking agent.
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