Drinking Water Quality and Supply

Bathurst tap water: Grade B, hardness 208 mg/L

By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources

Regional estimate
B

Water quality grade

Good

Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines

Lead within guidelinepH in range
Hardness vs provincial average208 mg/L · prov. avg 155 mg/L
Lead vs provincial average0 μg/L · prov. avg 0.2 μg/L
Hardness
208 mg/L
Lead
0 μg/L
≤ 5 μg/L
pH
8.1
6.5–8.5 range
Hardness
208 mg/L
Very 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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OpenStats picks for Bathurst — hard water, filter-first (208 mg/L)

Bathurst at 208 mg/L is hard enough to scale kettles, but most residents solve taste and lead at the tap first. Carbon filtration + test strips; whole-house softener only if repeat hardness readings justify it.

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Reading this page

Bathurst's drinking water earns Grade B (Good). Hardness is 208 mg/L (very 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 Bathurst 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

  • Nepisiguit River system

Treatment plants

  • Bathurst water treatment plant

    Municipal surface treatment drawing from the Nepisiguit / local surface system for Bathurst.

Distribution

City distribution serving the Chaleur Bay urban area.

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.

Health parameters compliant; minor aesthetic factors such as hardness or pH near guideline edges.

Figure 1 · Supply chain

From watershed to tap

Compared to provincial average

New Brunswick · 16 cities in sample

Hardness (city vs New Brunswick avg)208 mg/L
pH (city vs New Brunswick avg)8.1
Lead (city vs New Brunswick avg)0 μg/L
Fluoride (city vs New Brunswick avg)0.6 mg/L

Provincial average: hardness 155 mg/L · pH 7.6 · lead 0.2 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L

Full parameters

ParameterReadingHealth Canada guidelineStatus
Hardness208 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 Bathurst — hard water, filter-first (208 mg/L)

Bathurst at 208 mg/L is hard enough to scale kettles, but most residents solve taste and lead at the tap first. Carbon filtration + test strips; whole-house softener only if repeat hardness readings justify it.

As an Amazon Associate, OpenStats earns from qualifying purchases.

· Compare options

  • Brita 10-cup Elite pitcher
    OpenStats pick for Bathurst’s 208 mg/L hardness — drinking-water carbon first; pitchers do not soften
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  • Waterdrop 15UA under-sink filter
    Higher-flow kitchen carbon for Bathurst without dedicating a softener closet
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  • VARIFY hardness test strips
    Bathurst at 208 mg/L — measure before jumping to a whole-house softener
    Shop on Amazon.ca
  • Aquasure Harmony softener (upgrade path)
    Consider whole-house softening only if strips confirm 208 mg/L+ is wrecking appliances
    Shop on Amazon.ca
  • Brita Elite replacement filters
    Recurring Elite cartridges for Bathurst
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Source · ECCC / municipal open data (seed). Last updated 2026-09-01. Refreshed on the site's automated schedule.