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OpenStats picks for Sarnia — moderate hardness
Sarnia at 162 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.
Sarnia tap water: Grade A, hardness 162 mg/L
By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources
Regional estimateA
Water quality grade
Excellent
Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines
Lead within guidelinepH in range
Hardness vs provincial average162 mg/L · prov. avg 178 mg/L
Lead vs provincial average0.2 μg/L · prov. avg 0.4 μg/L
Hardness
162 mg/L
Lead
0.2 μg/L
≤ 5 μg/L
pH
8
6.5–8.5 range
Hardness
162 mg/L
Hard
Lead
0.2 μg/L
Max: 5 μg/L
pH
8
6.5–8.5
Chlorine
0.7 mg/L
Max: 4 mg/L
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Reading this page
Sarnia's drinking water earns Grade A (Excellent). Hardness is 162 mg/L (hard), and pH is 8 against Health Canada's 6.5–8.5 guideline.
Lead at 0.2 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 Sarnia 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
- Lake Huron
Treatment plants
Lambton Area Water Supply System (LAWSS) Water Treatment Plant
Regional plant at the Lake Huron outlet into the St. Clair River (Point Edward / Sarnia area). Intake sits above the Sarnia industrial complex. Jointly owned by Sarnia and neighbouring Lambton municipalities.
Distribution
LAWSS treats and transmits water to Sarnia, Point Edward, St. Clair Township, Warwick, Plympton-Wyoming, Lambton Shores and other customers; Sarnia operates local distribution within the city.
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
Ontario · 123 cities in sample
Hardness (city vs Ontario avg)162 mg/L
pH (city vs Ontario avg)8
Lead (city vs Ontario avg)0.2 μg/L
Fluoride (city vs Ontario avg)0.5 mg/L
Provincial average: hardness 178 mg/L · pH 7.5 · lead 0.4 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L
Full parameters
| Parameter | Reading | Health Canada guideline | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 162 mg/L | No health limit (aesthetic) | Compliant |
| pH | 8 | 6.5–8.5 | Compliant |
| Lead | 0.2 μg/L | ≤ 5 μg/L | Compliant |
| Fluoride | 0.5 mg/L | ≤ 1.5 mg/L | Compliant |
| Chlorine (free) | 0.7 mg/L | ≤ 4 mg/L | Compliant |
| Turbidity | 0.3 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 Sarnia — moderate hardness
Sarnia at 162 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.
· Compare options- Shop on Amazon.caBrita Denali pitcherOpenStats pick for Sarnia at 162 mg/L — everyday chlorine taste
- Shop on Amazon.caWaterdrop 15UA under-sink filterSkip the pitcher wait in Sarnia
- Shop on Amazon.caVARIFY hardness test stripsConfirm 162 mg/L before a softener
- Shop on Amazon.caBrita replacement filtersRecurring cartridge supply
Source · ECCC / municipal open data (seed). Last updated 2026-09-01. Refreshed on the site's automated schedule.