By OpenStats · Built from official Canadian sources
Direct municipal dataWater quality grade
Fair
Graded against Health Canada drinking water guidelines
Winnipeg’s 81 mg/L hardness and 1.2 mg/L chlorine mean kettle scale and pool-smell showers. Elite pitcher for the kitchen, shower filter for the bathroom, and under-sink NSF 53 where lead service lines remain.
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Winnipeg water hardness is 81 mg/L with pH 7.9.
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 Winnipeg 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
Winnipeg Water Treatment Plant (Deacon)
Opened December 2009 at Deacon Reservoir east of the city; design capacity about 400 million litres per day. Processes include dissolved air flotation, ozonation, filtration, and ultraviolet disinfection.
Shoal Lake water flows by gravity through the Shoal Lake Aqueduct (completed 1919) into Deacon Reservoir storage, then through the treatment plant and on to regional reservoirs and pumping stations that feed the city distribution network.
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
Manitoba · 13 cities in sample
Provincial average: hardness 163 mg/L · pH 7.5 · lead 0.4 μg/L · fluoride 0.6 mg/L
| Parameter | Reading | Health Canada guideline | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 81 mg/L | No health limit (aesthetic) | Compliant |
| pH | 7.9 | 6.5–8.5 | Compliant |
| Lead | 0.7 μg/L | ≤ 5 μg/L | Compliant |
| Fluoride | 0.7 mg/L | ≤ 1.5 mg/L | Compliant |
| Chlorine (free) | 1.2 mg/L | ≤ 4 mg/L | Compliant |
| Turbidity | 3.2 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
Winnipeg’s 81 mg/L hardness and 1.2 mg/L chlorine mean kettle scale and pool-smell showers. Elite pitcher for the kitchen, shower filter for the bathroom, and under-sink NSF 53 where lead service lines remain.
As an Amazon Associate, OpenStats earns from qualifying purchases.
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