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Drinking Water Quality and Supply

Prince Rupert tap water: Grade C, hardness 152 mg/L

By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources

Regional estimate
C

Water quality grade

Fair

Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines

Lead within guidelinepH in range
Hardness vs provincial average152 mg/L · prov. avg 142 mg/L
Lead vs provincial average0 μg/L · prov. avg 0.4 μg/L
Hardness
152 mg/L
Lead
0 μg/L
≤ 5 μg/L
pH
7.5
6.5–8.5 range
Hardness
152 mg/L
Hard
Lead
0 μg/L
Max: 5 μg/L
pH
7.5
6.5–8.5
Chlorine
0.5 mg/L
Max: 4 mg/L
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Reading this page

Prince Rupert's drinking water earns Grade C (Fair). Hardness is 152 mg/L (hard), and pH is 7.5 against Health Canada's 6.5–8.5 guideline.

Lead at 0 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

Supply and treatment

How Prince Rupert 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

  • Woodworth Lake (primary)
  • Shawatlan Lake (secondary)

Treatment plants

  • Prince Rupert chlorination facility (full WTP planned)

    Currently chlorination-focused; comprehensive filtration plant still in planning/pilot (Shawatlans pilot targeted ~2026). New Woodworth Dam completed 2022; primary supply restored Feb 2023.

Distribution

Gravity-fed system from elevated Woodworth Lake across the harbour; submarine/overland watermain and distribution replacement are major capital programs.

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

Compared to provincial average

British Columbia · 58 cities in sample

Hardness (city vs British Columbia avg)152 mg/L
pH (city vs British Columbia avg)7.5
Lead (city vs British Columbia avg)0 μg/L
Fluoride (city vs British Columbia avg)0.6 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
Hardness152 mg/LNo health limit (aesthetic)Compliant
pH7.56.5–8.5Compliant
Lead0 μg/L≤ 5 μg/LCompliant
Fluoride0.6 mg/L≤ 1.5 mg/LCompliant
Chlorine (free)0.5 mg/L≤ 4 mg/LCompliant
Turbidity3.3 NTU≤ 1 NTU (typical target)Exceeds guideline
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 Prince Rupert — moderate hardness

Prince Rupert at 152 mg/L is hard enough for kettle scale but often below whole-house softener urgency. Carbon filtration for taste plus hardness strips before you overspend.

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.