I just did a
brief search for you on the question "does chlorine build up in soil". After reading on several university sites, and several organic product sites, it seems that chlorine ("Cl"), a by-product of potassium chloride ("PC"), and can build up in soil with poor drainage. One example cited was a plant grown in a saucer on the kitchen windowsill.
The symptom or result most cited for build up of Cl or PC was burning of the plants. Another case commonly cited was that of draining swimming pool or spa chemicals (and, thus, chlorine) into areas where plants are grown. These high levels of chlorine are routinely cited as causes for severe burning of nearby plants.
That said, we use city water -- which has chemicals I try not to think about, including chlorine -- to water our garden. We hope to establish a rainwater collection system soon, but until then using the hose is our best option. We have well-drained, sandy loam in our garden area and have amended many times over the last 2 years with compost, rock minerals, worm castings, and diatomaceous earth. Our plants our healthy, gorgeous, happy, and bearing beautifully. The squash we planted the first week of April has already given us about 5 pounds of squash and there should be another huge harvest today.
I'll try to post a picture once I finish this post. Hopefully, I will succeed...
As to your question about your critters drinking chlorinated water, I'm curious why that's an issue. Are you going to sell goat milk, or make goat cheese, and you are wondering whether you can sell it as an "organic" product? If that's the case, you should probably just go to the USDA's Organic Certification pages (
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usd ... =PRODUCERS) and see what the guidelines are.
Hope that helps! (...and hope I can post a pic...
)
_________________
God speed!
Cara
**
Take time to stop and smell the flowers!
(or... as my ladybug refrigerator magnet says
"take time to stop and
eat the flowers!"
)