Is my tap water killing my compost?

Hello,

I've been in a discussion recently about making compost tea using tap water. I know that my water has chloramine in it making it debatable for use. My question is this. Is this tap water bad for the organisms in my compost pile?

Stephen,
Take some water to the health dept and they will test it and give you a breakdown. You may be able to use a filtering system depending on what the test reveals. Depending on what they add, it certainly can kill plenty of life in your compost. I know in the neighboring town, they honestly use 1 of the additives at water filtration plant as an herbicide to kill all of the grass around the building. I wouldn't put that water in my mouth or garden!

My mother used city water most of her life and had plenty of gardens and compost piles. I guess it wasn't a problem for her. She moved to the country, and now in her 90s is back in town. She still gardens a bit and I don't see her city water being a problem. Maybe it depends upon where you are, I don't know.

Interestingly enough we had a representative of the New Orleans sewage and water board visit my work today to test the water. I asked him about the chloramine in the water and he said it was high because of a case of brain eating amoeba from last year. I suppose I need to start a rain water collection system.

we try to avoid using city water as much as possible
drinking water and plant water comes from a flowing well [ph 7.0] and is tested regularly
the hill beds will be interesting on how much water they hold this year [first winter]
right now the snow is level with the top's
they did great for the first season but our conditions [rain fall] are much better than what you have to deal with
if you can store some water for the dry season and hand water

Mike