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Drinking Water Quality and Supply

Kitchener Drinking Water Quality

By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources

Direct municipal data
B

Water quality grade

Good

Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines

Lead within guidelinepH in range
Hardness vs provincial average227 mg/L · prov. avg 180 mg/L
Lead vs provincial average0.3 μg/L · prov. avg 0.4 μg/L
Hardness
227 mg/L
Lead
0.3 μg/L
≤ 5 μg/L
pH
8
6.5–8.5 range
Hardness
227 mg/L
Very hard
Lead
0.3 μg/L
Max: 5 μg/L
pH
8
6.5–8.5
Chlorine
0.8 mg/L
Max: 4 mg/L

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Reading this page

Kitchener's drinking water earns Grade B (Good). Hardness is 227 mg/L (very hard), and pH is 8 against Health Canada's 6.5–8.5 guideline.

Lead at 0.3 μg/L is below the 5 μg/L maximum, and fluoride is 0.5 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 Kitchener 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

Mixed surface and groundwater

Research confidence: high

Source waters

  • Groundwater aquifers (Waterloo Moraine and other regional wellfields)
  • Grand River

Treatment plants

  • Mannheim Water Treatment Plant

    Region of Waterloo plant treating Grand River surface water and blending it with nearby Mannheim wellfield groundwater for the Integrated Urban System serving Kitchener, Waterloo, and parts of Cambridge, Woolwich, and Wilmot.

  • Regional wellfields and associated treatment sites (e.g. Greenbrook and other IUS wells)

    More than 100 municipal wells across the region supply the majority of drinking water; many sites use iron/manganese treatment and chlorination before entry to the urban system.

Distribution

Region of Waterloo treats and supplies bulk water; City of Kitchener owns and operates local watermains, valves, hydrants, and customer billing. The Mannheim Service Area is under an active capacity-management program as growth continues.

Health parameters meet Health Canada limits; turbidity above the 1 NTU typical target and very hard water.

Health parameters meet Health Canada limits; turbidity exceeds the typical 1 NTU aesthetic target.

Figure 1 · Supply chain

From watershed to tap

Compared to provincial average

Ontario · 123 cities in sample

Hardness (city vs Ontario avg)227 mg/L
pH (city vs Ontario avg)8
Lead (city vs Ontario avg)0.3 μg/L
Fluoride (city vs Ontario avg)0.5 mg/L

Provincial average: hardness 180 mg/L · pH 7.5 · lead 0.4 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L

Full parameters

ParameterReadingHealth Canada guidelineStatus
Hardness227 mg/LNo health limit (aesthetic)Compliant
pH86.5–8.5Compliant
Lead0.3 μg/L≤ 5 μg/LCompliant
Fluoride0.5 mg/L≤ 1.5 mg/LCompliant
Chlorine (free)0.8 mg/L≤ 4 mg/LCompliant
Turbidity2.8000000000000003 NTU≤ 1 NTU (typical target)Exceeds guideline
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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Water softeners for hard water

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