By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources
Regional estimateWater quality grade
Good
Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines
Port Alberni hardness is 253 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 Port Alberni’s 253 mg/L hardness — metered whole-house softener sized for very hard Canadian tap water
Port Alberni: under-sink carbon for drinking water (chlorine 1.0 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 Port Alberni tap for a broader contaminant panel.
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Port Alberni's drinking water earns Grade B (Good). Hardness is 253 mg/L (very hard), and pH is 8.1 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 0.6 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 Port Alberni 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
Bainbridge Water Treatment Plant
Completed 2016 for Island Health surface-water objectives: three UV reactors plus on-site sodium hypochlorite generation. City inventory also lists gas chlorination at Bainbridge, Somass, and Johnston pumpstations. Filtration deferral historically pursued; UV+chlorine is the published multi-barrier upgrade.
City inventory: China Creek gravity intake (~24,451 m³/day permit), Bainbridge Lake pumped intake (~9,763 m³/day), Somass pumped emergency licence (~13,564 m³/day), plus Lizard Lake and Bainbridge storage dams; ~12 pressure zones and multiple reservoirs.
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
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 | 253 mg/L | No health limit (aesthetic) | Compliant |
| pH | 8.1 | 6.5–8.5 | Compliant |
| Lead | 0.5 μg/L | ≤ 5 μg/L | Compliant |
| Fluoride | 0.6 mg/L | ≤ 1.5 mg/L | Compliant |
| Chlorine (free) | 1 mg/L | ≤ 4 mg/L | Compliant |
| Turbidity | 1.4 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
Port Alberni hardness is 253 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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