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Vernon pairs 148 mg/L hardness with 0.9 mg/L chlorine — taste and scale show up together. Elite carbon for drinking, shower filter for chlorine, strips so you know when you need a softener.
Vernon tap water: Grade B, hardness 148 mg/L
By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources
Regional estimateB
Water quality grade
Good
Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines
Lead within guidelinepH in range
Hardness vs provincial average148 mg/L · prov. avg 142 mg/L
Lead vs provincial average0.4 μg/L · prov. avg 0.4 μg/L
Hardness
148 mg/L
Lead
0.4 μg/L
≤ 5 μg/L
pH
7.6
6.5–8.5 range
Hardness
148 mg/L
Hard
Lead
0.4 μg/L
Max: 5 μg/L
pH
7.6
6.5–8.5
Chlorine
0.9 mg/L
Max: 4 mg/L
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OpenStats pick for Vernon — 0.9 mg/L chlorine taste on 148 mg/L water
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Reading this page
Vernon's drinking water earns Grade B (Good). Hardness is 148 mg/L (hard), and pH is 7.6 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 0.7 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 Vernon 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
- Duteau Creek
- Kalamalka Lake
Treatment plants
Greater Vernon Water treatment facilities (Duteau Creek and Kalamalka Lake)
Regional District of North Okanagan’s Greater Vernon Water utility supplies Vernon, Coldstream, and surrounding areas. Potable supply is treated surface water from Duteau Creek and Kalamalka Lake; backup wells for emergencies only.
Distribution
GVW operates a large combined domestic/agricultural utility with separate non-potable irrigation supplies in some areas. Aberdeen Plateau reservoirs store Duteau Creek watershed water.
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)148 mg/L
pH (city vs British Columbia avg)7.6
Lead (city vs British Columbia avg)0.4 μg/L
Fluoride (city vs British Columbia avg)0.7 mg/L
Provincial average: hardness 142 mg/L · pH 7.6 · lead 0.4 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L
Full parameters
| Parameter | Reading | Health Canada guideline | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 148 mg/L | No health limit (aesthetic) | Compliant |
| pH | 7.6 | 6.5–8.5 | Compliant |
| Lead | 0.4 μg/L | ≤ 5 μg/L | Compliant |
| Fluoride | 0.7 mg/L | ≤ 1.5 mg/L | Compliant |
| Chlorine (free) | 0.9 mg/L | ≤ 4 mg/L | Compliant |
| Turbidity | 2.9 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 Vernon — chlorine + hardness
Vernon pairs 148 mg/L hardness with 0.9 mg/L chlorine — taste and scale show up together. Elite carbon for drinking, shower filter for chlorine, strips so you know when you need a softener.
As an Amazon Associate, OpenStats earns from qualifying purchases.
· Compare options- Shop on Amazon.caBrita 10-cup Elite pitcherOpenStats pick for Vernon — 0.9 mg/L chlorine taste on 148 mg/L water
- Shop on Amazon.caSR SUN RISE 20-stage shower filterVernon’s 0.9 mg/L chlorine — bestselling shower filter on Amazon.ca
- Shop on Amazon.caFrizzlife SW20 under-sink filterNSF 53 lead reduction for Vernon older plumbing
- Shop on Amazon.caBrita Elite replacement filtersSix-month Elite cartridges for Vernon
- Shop on Amazon.caVARIFY hardness test strips148 mg/L at Vernon — pitchers do not soften; strips decide if you need a softener
Source · ECCC / municipal open data (seed). Last updated 2026-09-01. Refreshed on the site's automated schedule.