Are those the same guys that will add iron out to their brine tank on a regular basis LOL
Chlorine above 3 ppm will damage resin fairly quickly. It causes the crosslink structure to fail allowing the resin to fracture and once that occurs, you no longer have round beads, you have irregular particles that will restrict flow rate. I would recommend a backwashing carbon system ahead of the water softener. The only time resin exits the bottom of a softener is due to the low quality bottom screens a lot of companies use. The Heavy Fleck or heavy Clack bottom screens do not suffer this problem. We only use the Fleck 40922 bottom screen and we have never had a field failure in any media with this bottom screen. We have been using it as an OEM systems builder for many years and it has proven itself to be bulletproof.
With chlorine levels as high as you are stating, you should notice a smell of chlorine in the water. If you cant, then guests should be able to. You can get used to the chlorine smell very quickly, to the point that you dont notice it anymore. For reference, a swimming pool should be maintained between 1-3 ppm residual free chlorine. Some municiapl supplies will be this high due to your proximity to the point of chlorine injection. Municipalities are supposed to maintain a MRDL of 4 ppm. 4.0 mg/L or 4 ppm as an annual average. If you are near the pumping station where they inject the chlorine, you can get some very high levels. Thisis because the guys at the end of the line must have some residual in their line and chlorine dissipates quickly. Many municipalities use Chloramine to extend the time that chlorine stays in the water.
A BB style filter is a waste of money, they have poor flow parameters, and their ability to remove the contaminants they claim is based on extremely low flow rates. Even a large residential backwashing tank has its limits for THM, VOC, and other contminants. See the attached chart for reference. A 20" BB carbon filter is less than 1/6 of a cubic foot of carbon.
A 10X54 tank with 1-1/2 cu. ft. of GAC, or (10) 20" BB filter has a technical rating of 1.6 gpm - 4.5 gpm. Chlorine removal is quite easy, even at high flow rates, it is the other chemicals that take proper contact time for adequate removal. These charts are based on information directly from the Carbon manufacturers.