Hi Sarah,
I can appreciate where you are coming from. Water authorities have definitely gotten better at their job and don’t use as much chlorine and chloroamines these days. I have always been a bit iffy about adding water conditioner unless absolutely necessary. I have several aquaria and I might end up doing a 90% water change if the fish poo is heavy enough. Yet I don’t both with a water ager. I have plenty of plants in the aquarium and any organic matter, especially small particulate stuff, quickly absorbs and uses the chlorine chemicals.
Although I am not doing so this year, for the past five years plus I have raised about a thousand tadpoles from my backyard, to the metamorph stage each a year, for release in a local artificial lake. I do about a 30% to 50% water change per week, straight out of the hose. The uneaten food and taddy poop gets rid of any chlorine chemicals ASAP.
If you want to rid water of all chlorine based chemicals before using it, there are a number of ways of doing. You can filter it through green grass, allow it to sit in a recycling crate in sunshine for a day, aerate it with an airstone for a day or just let it sit inside in a bucket for 3 days.
When it comes to drinking chlorinated water, as others have stated, it is no more drama for reptiles that it is for us. The important thing to know about snakes and drinking is that they will not drink water that has stood for more than a day, so regular changes of water are appropriate.
Blue