One especially important feature of disinfection using chlorine is the ease of overdosing to create a "residual" concentration. There is a constant danger that safe water leaving the treatment plant may become contaminated later. There may be breaks in water mains, loss of pressure that permits an inward leak, or plumbing errors. This residual concentration of chlorine provides some degree of protection right to the water faucet. With free available chlorine, a typical residual is from 0.1 to 0.5 ppm. Because chlorinated organic compounds are less effective, a typical residual is 2 ppm for combined chlorine.
There will be no chlorine residual unless there is an excess over
the amount that reacts with the organic matter present. However,
reaction kinetics complicate interpretation of chlorination data.
The correct excess is obtained in a method called
" Break Point Chlorination ".