By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources
Regional estimateWater quality grade
Good
Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines
Peterborough hardness is 252 mg/L — pitcher filters improve taste but will not soften water. Size a metered whole-house softener for scale, and add under-sink carbon for drinking chlorine.
OpenStats pick for Peterborough’s 252 mg/L hardness — metered whole-house softener sized for very hard Canadian tap water
Peterborough: under-sink carbon for drinking water (chlorine 0.9 mg/L) — does not remove hardness minerals
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Municipal reports cover the plant. A Tap Score kit tests the water at a Peterborough tap for a broader contaminant panel.
Lab kit partner link. We may earn a commission when tracking is active.
Peterborough's drinking water earns Grade B (Good). Hardness is 252 mg/L (very hard), and pH is 8 against Health Canada's 6.5–8.5 guideline.
Lead at 0.4 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 Peterborough 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
Peterborough Water Treatment Plant
Plant at 1230 Water Street North beside Riverview Park and Zoo. Dual Otonabee intakes, conventional coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation/filtration and chlorine disinfection. Rated capacity about 104 ML/d.
High-lift pumping feeds city reservoirs and a distribution network with dry-barrel hydrants suited to freeze risk.
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
Ontario · 123 cities in sample
Provincial average: hardness 178 mg/L · pH 7.5 · lead 0.4 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L
| Parameter | Reading | Health Canada guideline | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 252 mg/L | No health limit (aesthetic) | Compliant |
| pH | 8 | 6.5–8.5 | Compliant |
| Lead | 0.4 μg/L | ≤ 5 μg/L | Compliant |
| Fluoride | 0.5 mg/L | ≤ 1.5 mg/L | Compliant |
| Chlorine (free) | 0.9 mg/L | ≤ 4 mg/L | Compliant |
| Turbidity | 1.3 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
Peterborough hardness is 252 mg/L — pitcher filters improve taste but will not soften water. Size a metered whole-house softener for scale, and add under-sink carbon for drinking chlorine.
As an Amazon Associate, OpenStats earns from qualifying purchases.
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