A City of Plano utility staff member said the City and the North Texas Municipal Water District will temporarily stop adding ammonia and use chlorine-only during the district’s routine annual water system maintenance.

The shift removes chloramine — a disinfectant that pairs ammonia and chlorine — for a short period, a staff member said, and is intended as a small operational adjustment during scheduled maintenance. "The chlorine is the same amount. There's nothing else added to the water, and it's completely safe to drink," the staff member said.

Chloramine is formed by combining ammonia with chlorine; the staff member described the temporary change as a brief removal of the ammonia component so chlorine alone provides disinfection during the maintenance window. Officials said this can make chlorine more noticeable to customers: "Some people may notice a little more chlorine smell or taste, and other people won't notice any difference at all," the staff member said.

The staff member emphasized that the routine treatment process is unchanged except for that single adjustment during maintenance and reiterated the agencies' focus on water quality: "Both the city of Plano and North Texas Municipal Water District are dedicated to providing safe, high quality drinking water because keeping you and our community healthy is our top priority," the staff member said.

No regulatory citations, contact information, or timetable for the maintenance period were provided in the remarks. The statement did not include any changes to chlorine concentration or other treatment steps beyond temporarily stopping ammonia addition; officials said chlorine dosing remains the same.