Drinking Water Quality and Supply

Quesnel tap water: Grade B, hardness 179 mg/L

By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources

Regional estimate
B

Water quality grade

Good

Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines

Lead within guidelinepH in range
Hardness vs provincial average179 mg/L · prov. avg 142 mg/L
Lead vs provincial average0.3 μg/L · prov. avg 0.4 μg/L
Hardness
179 mg/L
Lead
0.3 μg/L
≤ 5 μg/L
pH
7.7
6.5–8.5 range
Hardness
179 mg/L
Hard
Lead
0.3 μg/L
Max: 5 μg/L
pH
7.7
6.5–8.5
Chlorine
0.8 mg/L
Max: 4 mg/L
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Reading this page

Quesnel's drinking water earns Grade B (Good). Hardness is 179 mg/L (hard), and pH is 7.7 against Health Canada's 6.5–8.5 guideline.

Lead at 0.3 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

Supply and treatment

How Quesnel 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

Groundwater

Research confidence: high

Source waters

  • Local groundwater aquifers (six production wells)

Treatment plants

  • Quesnel water treatment system (chlorination + pyrolusite filtration — in design/implementation)

    Historically untreated groundwater. Preferred upgrade: chlorination and pyrolusite media filtration for manganese (Health Canada MAC 0.12 mg/L; city averages often higher).

Distribution

Six wells, eight reservoirs, five booster stations, ~100 km of main, ~10,000 residents. No Fraser River intake for municipal potable supply.

Health parameters meet Health Canada limits; turbidity above the 1 NTU typical target.

Health parameters meet Health Canada limits; turbidity exceeds the typical 1 NTU aesthetic 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)179 mg/L
pH (city vs British Columbia avg)7.7
Lead (city vs British Columbia avg)0.3 μg/L
Fluoride (city vs British Columbia avg)0.5 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
Hardness179 mg/LNo health limit (aesthetic)Compliant
pH7.76.5–8.5Compliant
Lead0.3 μg/L≤ 5 μg/LCompliant
Fluoride0.5 mg/L≤ 1.5 mg/LCompliant
Chlorine (free)0.8 mg/L≤ 4 mg/LCompliant
Turbidity2 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 Quesnel — moderate hardness

Quesnel at 179 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.