By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources
Regional estimateWater quality grade
Fair
Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines
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Merritt's drinking water earns Grade C (Fair). Hardness is 117 mg/L (moderate), and pH is 7 against Health Canada's 6.5–8.5 guideline.
Lead at 0.5 μg/L is below the 5 μg/L maximum, and fluoride is 0.7 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
How Merritt 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.
Groundwater
Research confidence: high
City of Merritt well pumphouses (Voght Park, Fairley Park, Collettville, Kengard)
Five municipal wells (30-150 m deep). UV reactors (ETS-UV Spectra) and chlorination at each pumphouse since 2019 commissioning.
Six reservoirs store 12.2+ million litres; ~70 km of distribution mains (100-350 mm).
Health parameters meet Health Canada limits; turbidity above the 1 NTU typical target.
One or more parameters exceed a Health Canada drinking water guideline or turbidity target.
Figure 1 · Supply chain
From watershed to tap
British Columbia · 58 cities in sample
Provincial average: hardness 142 mg/L · pH 7.6 · lead 0.4 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L
| Parameter | Reading | Health Canada guideline | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 117 mg/L | No health limit (aesthetic) | Compliant |
| pH | 7 | 6.5–8.5 | Compliant |
| Lead | 0.5 μg/L | ≤ 5 μg/L | Compliant |
| Fluoride | 0.7 mg/L | ≤ 1.5 mg/L | Compliant |
| Chlorine (free) | 1 mg/L | ≤ 4 mg/L | Compliant |
| Turbidity | 3.8 NTU | ≤ 1 NTU (typical target) | Exceeds guideline |
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.
Explore WaterRegister.ca →OpenStats pick
Merritt pairs 117 mg/L hardness with 1.0 mg/L chlorine — taste and scale show up together. Elite carbon for drinking, shower filter for chlorine, strips so you know when you need a softener.
As an Amazon Associate, OpenStats earns from qualifying purchases.
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