By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources
Regional estimateWater quality grade
Excellent
Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines
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Nanaimo's drinking water earns Grade A (Excellent). Hardness is 127 mg/L (hard), and pH is 8 against Health Canada's 6.5–8.5 guideline.
Lead at 0.7 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
How Nanaimo 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.
Surface water
Research confidence: high
South Fork Water Treatment Plant
Gravity-fed membrane ultrafiltration plant online since late 2015; screening, flocculation as needed, UV on secondary membranes, chlorine disinfection. Peak capacity about 116 ML/day.
Jump Lake provides the large active storage; South Fork Dam maintains intake level for twin gravity pipelines to the plant. Treated water feeds Nanaimo, Snuneymuxw First Nation, and Extension via reservoirs, pump stations, and hundreds of kilometres of mains.
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
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 | 127 mg/L | No health limit (aesthetic) | Compliant |
| pH | 8 | 6.5–8.5 | Compliant |
| Lead | 0.7 μg/L | ≤ 5 μg/L | Compliant |
| Fluoride | 0.5 mg/L | ≤ 1.5 mg/L | Compliant |
| Chlorine (free) | 1.2 mg/L | ≤ 4 mg/L | Compliant |
| Turbidity | 0.8 NTU | ≤ 1 NTU (typical target) | Compliant |
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
Nanaimo pairs 127 mg/L hardness with 1.2 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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