When I was a kid we had town water that came from the Mohawk River and was treated heavily, and every place I lived after I left home, as in Ithaca, Rochester, Denver, back to the Albany area had water where I could smell the chlorine.But in the Albany area I also knew many commercial farmers and all of them used municipal water to water their crops, save two, one who luckily had an artesian well and the other had a pond that resulted from springs and he'd pump water from there to the crops and the greenhouses, and that was my farmer friend Charlie where for so many years I raised my own tomato plants.
And I never saw any problems at any stage of raising seedlings or watering mature plants in the field from those who used municipal water. And I guess they didn't either b'c they all continued that practice.
And so it came to pass that when I retired in 1999 and moved to my new home I found I had a 65 ft driven well in rock and oh how lovely the water is. Cold and clear and free of chlorine and all other noxious things. Yes, it's been tested, in the womb to tomb high priced test. Since I live in an agricultural area and so much they use can get into the watershed it's important to do such high priced kinds of tests. But I'm up off the valley floor and my water comes from Egg Mt springs and Manchester, VT is on the other side of Egg MT.
Fact is, my brother and family lived not too far from where I am and had for about 35 years before they moved to NC two years ago, and during those years whenever I was home from here or there we'd drive up to my brother's place and my mother would insist that we bring jugs and take home water from their well.
I can't conceive that the amount of Chlorine in municipally treated water would be at a level that would damage in any way normal crops. Perhaps some fussy inside stuff, but not your typical outside grown veggies, fruits and flowers.
And any of you who are in my area of Eastern NY on the Vt border between Granville and Cambridge, do stop by and enjoy my lovely cold, chemical free water.
