SALISBURY — Everyone knows not to drink the water from a swimming pool because of how much chlorine is in it.

However, chlorine is not just used in the water people swim in, but in the kind they drink, too. Obviously, the amount from each source varies, but chlorine has always been essential to making sure all forms of a community’s water remain clean.

As it gets hotter outside, people might be smelling chlorine coming from their faucets. The Salisbury-Rowan Utilities Water Plant utilizes sodium hypochlorite, a chlorine they make themselves, to halt any bacteria from formulating in the county’s water supply.

SRU Lab Analyst Kara Cline says that sodium hypochlorite is used year-round, but the odor is noticed more in the summer since it only smells when it gets released from water. When temperatures get higher, chlorine dissipates out faster, which causes the smell. In the colder winter months, the chlorine stays in the water longer so the odor is less noticeable.

If a person calls to report a chlorine smell coming from their water, the plant will test it to make sure it’s safe, but the unpredictable weather from earlier this year has caused an influx of concerns from residents.

“Especially with the beginning of the summer, where we had the really crazy up and down temperatures. We would drop down to 60 then we’d go up to 90 real fast. People didn’t have time to get used to the smell. Usually it’s one time, maybe people will smell for three or four days, and it’s something they get used to really fast. But with the fluctuation we had this summer, there were quite a few times people started to ask us about it,” Cline said.

Cline notes that the plant always puts a “totally safe amount” of chlorine in the water and if a person’s water smells like chlorine, that doesn’t mean it’s not safe to drink. “It’s never actually too high because chlorine only goes down from the time we put in. It doesn’t go up concentration-wise,” Cline said.

During the summer, the plant puts an average of 1.6 milligrams per liter of chlorine in the water, with 4 milligrams per liter being the maximum amount that’s safe. If a person’s water does smell like chlorine, SRU suggests they place it in a sealed container in the fridge to allow time for the odor to disappear.