Water treatment resources
Does El Paso Water Use Chloramine?
Short answer: no — El Paso Water disinfects with free chlorine. Here’s why the distinction matters when you’re choosing filtration or a softener.
Short Answer: El Paso Uses Free Chlorine
El Paso Water’s published water quality FAQ states it plainly: “El Paso uses chlorine to disinfect our drinking water” — free chlorine, not chloramine. The utility reports that the maximum amount of chlorine in El Paso’s water is usually around two parts per million, a level it describes as posing no adverse health risk, and notes that chlorine has been used to disinfect drinking water since 1908.
Chloramine — chlorine combined with ammonia — is used by many other municipal systems because it persists longer in the distribution system than free chlorine does. It is a fair thing to ask about, because treatment equipment is often specified differently for it. In El Paso, though, free chlorine is what your filtration and softening equipment actually has to deal with.
Why the Distinction Matters at the Tap
Chloramine is harder to remove than free chlorine. Standard activated carbon readily reduces chlorine taste and odor, while chloramine generally needs longer contact time or a catalytic carbon media to reduce meaningfully. Because El Paso is a free-chlorine system, conventional carbon filtration is usually well matched to local water — one fewer variable when sizing a whole-home filtration system here.
Either disinfectant can shorten water-softener resin life over time, which is why El Paso Water Tek places carbon pretreatment ahead of the softening resin in the systems we install — removing the chemical before it reaches the resin bed.
The Other Local Taste-and-Odor Factor
Chlorine is not the only thing El Paso residents notice. El Paso Water reports that musty tastes and odors occasionally appear during hot summer months, when algae multiply in New Mexico reservoirs upstream, and that it treats this with activated carbon while the water remains safe to drink.
If taste, odor, or resin life is a concern, the fix usually isn’t "more carbon" — it’s the right carbon media and contact time for the specific disinfectant and conditions in your water. That’s a detail worth confirming when sizing a whole-home filtration system or a drinking-water RO system.
Have a water question?
Talk to a Local Water Treatment Specialist
Serving homes, businesses, and facilities throughout El Paso and the DFW metroplex.