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Drinking Water Quality and Supply

Nelson tap water: Grade A, hardness 167 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 average167 mg/L · prov. avg 142 mg/L
Lead vs provincial average0.7 μg/L · prov. avg 0.4 μg/L
Hardness
167 mg/L
Lead
0.7 μg/L
≤ 5 μg/L
pH
7
6.5–8.5 range
Hardness
167 mg/L
Hard
Lead
0.7 μg/L
Max: 5 μg/L
pH
7
6.5–8.5
Chlorine
1.2 mg/L
Max: 4 mg/L
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Reading this page

Nelson's drinking water earns Grade A (Excellent). Hardness is 167 mg/L (hard), and pH is 7 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 0.7 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

Supply and treatment

How Nelson 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: high

Source waters

  • Five Mile Creek
  • Anderson Creek (incl. Fell Creek)
  • Selous Creek

Treatment plants

  • Mountain Station Water Treatment Facility

    As of 2023 all sources consolidate here: sedimentation in historic reservoir, UV, and chlorination (sodium hypochlorite).

Distribution

Five Mile supplies ~88% via a 1927 pipeline; Anderson and Selous supplement peak summer demand. Anderson booster lifts water ~100 m to Mountain Station.

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

British Columbia · 58 cities in sample

Hardness (city vs British Columbia avg)167 mg/L
pH (city vs British Columbia avg)7
Lead (city vs British Columbia avg)0.7 μg/L
Fluoride (city vs British Columbia avg)0.7 mg/L

Provincial average: hardness 142 mg/L · pH 7.6 · lead 0.4 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L

Full parameters

ParameterReadingHealth Canada guidelineStatus
Hardness167 mg/LNo health limit (aesthetic)Compliant
pH76.5–8.5Compliant
Lead0.7 μg/L≤ 5 μg/LCompliant
Fluoride0.7 mg/L≤ 1.5 mg/LCompliant
Chlorine (free)1.2 mg/L≤ 4 mg/LCompliant
Turbidity0.8 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.

Explore WaterRegister.ca →

OpenStats pick

OpenStats picks for Nelson — chlorine + hardness

Nelson pairs 167 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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Source · ECCC / municipal open data (seed). Last updated 2026-09-01. Refreshed on the site's automated schedule.