How’s your water? Does it taste good? Smell good? What’s in it?
If you’re on municipal water, the city looks after the water supply, treating it and testing it to make sure it’s safe to drink. In Barrie, the water supply is a mix of surface water (water drawn from Kempenfelt Bay) and water from deep artesian wells.
Treatment options depend on the water source. Groundwater and surface water are treated differently.
The groundwater comes from deep wells where it is screened for any particles and disinfected before being released to the distribution system. The city uses chlorine for the majority of the wells and a ultraviolet light for one well.
Because groundwater in Barrie contains naturally occurring iron and manganese, sodium
silicate is added to the particles in suspension. It also helps to prevent rusty-looking water when you turn on the tap.
Surface water, drawn from lakes, streams, rivers, ponds, and springs requires more treatment than deep wells because it is open to the atmosphere, environment, and run-off which will likely contain micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause illness.
Barrie’s surface water is drawn from Kempenfelt Bay, close to 1 km away from the shore at a depth of 26 metres deep. The water travels through pressurized strainers to remove particles before being treated with a series of chemical processes, filtration, and activated carbon contactors to absorb and remove organic taste and odour compounds before final disinfection with chlorine.
While groundwater is filtered naturally through layers of earth (sand, soil, clay), and rock it also has a higher mineral content which makes it harder than surface water. It requires less treatment to make it safe for drinking but it is also hard on your plumbing because of mineral (iron, calcium, manganese) buildup.
Many homeowners opt to add a water softener which requires maintenance for the water to run clear. Water softeners are available in salt and salt-free options.
Sodium can occur naturally or be the result of road salt application, water treatment chemicals or ion-exchange water-softening units. City water is tested for sodium levels.
City water is also tested for nitrates, chemicals that occur naturally or as a result of human activities.
Your water may also smell. The usual suspect is an older anode in the water heater. The cold water line can smell too, a rotten egg odor, which indicates hydrogen sulfide from bacteria. It is more common in private well water than municipal water.
The most obvious byproduct of treated water is chlorine which is used to disinfect city water. Chlorine helps to prevent serious illness from organisms in water that can produce disease. It is also a legal requirement for municipal water.
By-products of chlorine include Trihalomethane (THM), compounds that can appear in water with high levels of organic materials, and Haloacetic acids (HAAs), compounds that can form when chlorine reacts with drinking water that has naturally occurring organic matter such as decaying leaves and vegetation.
According to the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, the use of chlorine to disinfect drinking water is a benefit that far outweighs the perceived negative health risks of HAAs at the present time.
