Interpreting the Public Water System Data Tables

There are two public water system data tables, one for systems that provide water service on a year round basis and another for systems that provide service on a seasonal basis. Seasonal systems are generally recreational systems that are open for half the year or less.

Water systems are organized alphabetically by the municipality or local government that the water system is located in. For example, if you live in the Rural Municipality of Dauphin, your water supplier may be the Eclipse (Dauphin) Water System or the Rural Municipality of Dauphin (G-3 Regional) Water System.

Where a water system name is followed by another water system name in brackets, it means the water system receives water from another system or from a regional system. For example, Eclipse (Dauphin) is the Eclipse water system, which receives treated water from the City of Dauphin’s water treatment system.

There are four types of source waters listed in the table:

  • Surface means the water source is from a river, lake or dugout.
  • Well means the water source is from a secure groundwater aquifer
  • GUDI or “Groundwater Under the Direct Influence” of surface water means that the water source is a groundwater well that is not secure. The well may be shallow, poorly constructed, located too close to a surface water body, or drilled into an unconfined aquifer that can be influenced during heavy rains or flood waters.
  • Blended means the water system blends both surface water and groundwater.

The source water is then treated to meet Manitoba drinking water standards. Different standards are applied to different water sources. Surface water sources may contain protozoa for example, whereas secure wells do not. The standards highlighted in blue are applied to surface water systems. The standards highlighted in green are applied to well water systems. Both sets of standards are applied to GUDI systems.

Not all Manitoba drinking Water standards are represented on the data tables. For example; benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and total xylenes (BTEX) are a group of contaminant standards associated with fuel spills. Data is not listed for these parameters as there are no water systems in Manitoba that contain these compounds.

The standard or maximum acceptable concentration for each parameter is listed under the parameter name. For example, the standard for THMs (trihalomethanes) is 0.100 mg/L (milligram per litre) and the standard for Arsenic is 0.010 mg/L.

Table Legend:

  • Yellow highlighting means the system does not meet the standard.
  • NR (highlighted in grey) means “not required”, i.e. the standard does not apply to the water system
  • NS (highlighted in yellow) means “not sampled”, i.e. the standard applies to the water system, but they did not collect the required sample and cannot show that they meet the standard.

Turbidity and Protozoa

  • A checkmark (“✓”) means the water system meets the standard
  • An “x” (highlighted in yellow) means the water system does not meet the standard
  • Reasons for non-compliance vary but generally relate to inadequate filtration or monitoring. Higher risk systems are placed on a boil water advisory.

THM and HAAs

  • Compliance with the THM and HAA standards is based on an average of four samples per year. An asterisk (*) following the reported value means there were less than four samples collected

Arsenic, Fluoride, Nitrate and Uranium

  • A less than (“<”) symbol in front of the reported value means the result was below the method detection limit, and the water system meets the standard.

See Frequently Asked Questions for more information on the data tables

See Manitoba’s Drinking Water Quality Standards for more information on the standards