Fairfax water purging and that awful chemical smell

[Anonymous]

It's our first spring in Fairfax and our tap water started absolutely reeking of chemicals (which DH identifies as chlorine) a few days ago. It's undrinkable.
How long does this purging of the pipes last and when can we expect to start using our tap water to drink and cook with again?

Does anyone know why they do this? I've lived in half a dozen (developed) countries and half a dozen states in this country and I've never experienced anything like this before.

[Anonymous]

We're not experiencing this in FFX.

[Anonymous]

The following is from their website:

Temporary Change to Free Chlorine

"During this period of time, a slight change is made in the water treatment process to facilitate an effective flushing program. Throughout the year, chloramines, or combined chlorine, is added to the water as the primary disinfectant. During the spring flushing program, chlorine is added in an uncombined state, commonly referred to as free chlorine. Free chlorine is somewhat more volatile than combined, providing exceptional availability to react with sediments suspended during flushing. Fairfax Water will use free chlorine as the primary disinfectant from March 31, 2011, through the end of June 2011. Depending on your location within the distribution system and usage patterns, it could take up to a week for your drinking water to transition from combined to free chlorine at the beginning of April, or from free chlorine to combined chlorine at the end of June.

You may notice a chlorine taste and odor in your drinking water while free chlorine is utilized. If you are especially sensitive to the taste and odor of chlorine, try keeping an open container of drinking water in your refrigerator. This will enable the chlorine to dissipate thus reducing the chlorine taste. Remember – drinking water has a shelf life! Change out the water in your refrigerated container weekly."