What is AMC adding to the hut water?

In the last few weeks I have visited Madison, Lakes, Zealand and today Greenleaf. At all the huts public water has the same distinct poor taste. It reminds me of water treated with Polarpure. In theory all these sources are drilled wells but I am curious if they have to add some sort of treatment to the water to retain a residual in the pipes? I had noticed this in previous years at select huts (especially Zealand) but it seems to be more far more noticeable this year. Anyone else notice this or have any info?

peakbagger said:

...Madison, Lakes, Zealand and today Greenleaf...water has the same distinct poor taste

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The huts are water-tested occasionally and when they fail I assume they have to put heavy chlorine in for awhile. A couple of times when (if memory serves) Galehead Hut failed they put out treated water in jugs.

The huts are not exactly Five star resorts or pristine back county conditions. Lots of people concentrated with limited cleanup resources.

The AMC huts are considered Public Water Systems, so fall under some strict NH Dept of Environmental Services rules for testing.
Recently up until this spring, seasonal PWS's basically had quarterly testing for coliform & e-coli bacteria.
Effective this spring the testing is required monthly.
I don't know for sure (I perform this testing for a different outfit at numerous locations), but your assumption may be correct that disinfection may be occurring more often due to more frequent testing requirements.

I guess the hut guests may want to haul a carbon filter with them as its pretty rude tasting stuff.

The huts originally drilled the wells to get around surface water treatment regulations.