Rockwood Ontario Water Quality & Treatment

Rockwood Ontario has very unique water quality properties for a municipal water supply and we get many questions from residents on how to properly address their water concerns. Here are the water quality parameters as provided to Aquatell from a municipal water treatment employee in September of 2023:

pH = 7.3
Iron = 2.09 mg/L
Manganese = 0.02 mg/L
Water Hardness = 480 mg/L or 28.07 Grains per Gallon (GPG)

It's the iron content in Rockwood water that is particularly unique and problematic. Iron (and manganese too) cause staining of porcelain fixtures, degradation of water-using appliances, and can give the water a strange metallic taste. Here's a brief description of the technologies you can use to address these concerns:

Water Hardness Scale

Water hardness caused white/grey deposits on surfaces that are frequently wet or splashed with water. For water that is as hard as Rockwood's the only solution is going to be a conventional water softener. We strongly discourage the use of non salt-using "scale prevention" systems. While these may work to some degree on water that is less hard, the results in Rockwood won't be great.

Iron Staining

Iron reduction can be very successfully accomplished through the use of a couple of different technologies. If the iron that's present is in the "clear water iron" form, a water softener can be used to address the issue. But beware, while all water softeners have the ability to remove iron, only softeners that are built with resin specifically chosen for iron reduction will survive more than a couple of years on Rockwood water. We recommend you look at an iron removing water softener that has been purpose built for iron reduction. Avoid systems that use regular water softening resin or fine mesh resin which can cause pressure loss and premature system failure. Softeners can built with a "turbulator" which will help to prolong resin lifespan in iron-laden water. Have a look at this iron removing water softener from Aquatell that is perfect for Rockwood water.

Some households may not want a water softener and some households may already have a softener they don't want to replace but it's not getting all the iron out. In both of these cases, a dedicated iron water filter can be used. These systems use a unique filtration media and the oxygen in air to convert the iron to a particle and filter it out. They work exceptionally well.

Iron / Metallic Taste

Even with a softener or an iron filter, you may have enough iron remaining in the water to taste it. This may be because of poorly functioning iron removing filters but it can also be from residual iron that has collected in your plumbing system. The best way to remove this taste from you water is with a reverse osmosis drinking water system. These systems provide ultra pure water to a single dedicated faucet and are highly effective at getting iron to zero as well as filtering out thousands of other compounds and chemicals.