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Drinking Water Quality and Supply

Alma tap water: Grade A, hardness 168 mg/L

By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources

Regional estimate
A

Water quality grade

Excellent

Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines

Lead within guidelinepH in range
Hardness vs provincial average168 mg/L · prov. avg 183 mg/L
Lead vs provincial average0 μg/L · prov. avg 0.3 μg/L
Hardness
168 mg/L
Lead
0 μg/L
≤ 5 μg/L
pH
8.1
6.5–8.5 range
Hardness
168 mg/L
Hard
Lead
0 μg/L
Max: 5 μg/L
pH
8.1
6.5–8.5
Chlorine
0.5 mg/L
Max: 4 mg/L
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Reading this page

Alma's drinking water earns Grade A (Excellent). Hardness is 168 mg/L (hard), and pH is 8.1 against Health Canada's 6.5–8.5 guideline.

Lead at 0 μg/L is below the 5 μg/L maximum, and fluoride is 0.6 mg/L against a guideline of ≤ 1.5 mg/L.

How to use this page: read the headline metric and provincial comparison first, then supply and treatment notes, then the source footer for the underlying dataset.

Watershed to tap

Supply and treatment

How Alma draws, treats, and distributes drinking water, from municipal and utility publications. Chemistry grades above come from separate parameter records; this section does not invent plant lab figures.

Source type

Surface water

Research confidence: medium

Source waters

  • Lac Saint-Jean / Grande Décharge system

Treatment plants

  • Usine de production d’eau potable d’Alma

    Municipal surface plant drawing from the Lac Saint-Jean / Grande Décharge system.

Distribution

City distribution in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean urban area at Alma.

Cited sources

Supply notes summarize published utility materials. They are not a substitute for the issuing authority's current notices or for a licensed tap test.

All monitored parameters meet Health Canada guidelines.

All health parameters meet Health Canada guidelines with comfortable pH, hardness, and turbidity.

Figure 1 · Supply chain

From watershed to tap

Compared to provincial average

Quebec · 34 cities in sample

Hardness (city vs Quebec avg)168 mg/L
pH (city vs Quebec avg)8.1
Lead (city vs Quebec avg)0 μg/L
Fluoride (city vs Quebec avg)0.6 mg/L

Provincial average: hardness 183 mg/L · pH 7.5 · lead 0.3 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L

Full parameters

ParameterReadingHealth Canada guidelineStatus
Hardness168 mg/LNo health limit (aesthetic)Compliant
pH8.16.5–8.5Compliant
Lead0 μg/L≤ 5 μg/LCompliant
Fluoride0.6 mg/L≤ 1.5 mg/LCompliant
Chlorine (free)0.5 mg/L≤ 4 mg/LCompliant
Turbidity0.9 NTU≤ 1 NTU (typical target)Compliant
Alberta water licences

WaterRegister.ca

On a private well or holding an Alberta water allocation licence? Water Register maps EPA licence records, transfer comparables, and watershed context across the province.

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OpenStats pick

OpenStats picks for Alma — moderate hardness

Alma at 168 mg/L is hard enough for kettle scale but often below whole-house softener urgency. Carbon filtration for taste plus hardness strips before you overspend.

As an Amazon Associate, OpenStats earns from qualifying purchases.

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Source · ECCC / municipal open data (seed). Last updated 2026-09-01. Refreshed on the site's automated schedule.