River to tap

Water's journey to your tap begins in the glaciers, snowpack and ground water of the Canadian Rockies, which eventually flows into the North Saskatchewan River before reaching Edmonton and our E.L. Smith and Rossdale Water Treatment Plants.

Drawn into the treatment plant by pipes deep in the river specially designed to protect fish, the water is clarified, filtered and disinfected, making it safe for you and your family to use. Throughout this process, we're constantly testing water quality.

After about seven to 15 hours of treatment, the safe and clean water is stored in reservoirs, ready to travel through thousands of kilometers of underground pipes to reach your tap, toilet and bath.

Wastewater management

It's important that the water we return to the river is safe for wildlife and the environment. Every time you take a shower or flush the toilet, you send wastewater to our Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant, which collects, clarifies and treats both your wastewater and nature's storm water. This includes removing debris and contaminants, plus disinfection using high intensity ultraviolet light.

Frequently asked questions

As water experts and enthusiasts, we're pretty passionate about water. From river water to drinking water, we work hard to make sure it's all safe and healthy for everyone to enjoy.

As your water provider, we get a lot of questions about our water. Here are some of the common questions we hear.

We get our drinking water from the North Saskatchewan Riveropens in a new tab, which is born from the snowy tops of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. But before the crisp H₂O gets to your tap, we do our thing to make it safe and healthy for you to drink. Here are some of the highlights:

We safely bring water from the river into our treatment plants. Our treatment plants have pipes deep in the river, designed to bring water into our plants while protecting fish.
We deliver clean and safe water to thousands of customers. Your water spends up to 12 hours being clarified, filtered and disinfected before it travels through underground pipes to your home.
We go above and beyond when it comes to testing our water. We test and adjust for hundreds of parameters, only 80 of which are required.
We continuously monitor the water we treat. Our water consistently meets or exceeds all the requirements set by provincial standards and Health Canada's Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality so you can enjoy a clean and safe glass of tap water.
We're kind of like water sommeliers. Our team of experts sniff the water regularly during all phases of the treatment process to detect any odours, especially during spring runoff. If needed, we adjust our treatment process to help remove any unwanted odours.

There are a lot of reasons to stick with tap water.

Tap water is subject to more stringent quality standards than bottled water. Our water meets or exceeds all federal and provincial standards, along with our own internal standards.
Bottled water can cost 1,000 times or more what tap water does. The cost of bottled water can range from around 20 cents to $2.50 per litre, while here in Edmonton, tap water costs 0.23173 cents per litre.
* Tap water cost based on 2024 residential rate of $2.3173/m³
It takes 3 litres of water to produce 1 litre of bottled water, according to the Pacific Institute of Californiaopens in a new tab. So why not buy that fancy reusable bottle you've been admiring to help conserve water and reduce waste?

Ensuring safe drinking water isn't our only priority.

Almost all of the water you flush down the toilet or send down the drain – 90%, in fact – eventually makes its way back to the river. But first, it makes a stop at our Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant.

At Gold Bar, our team of operators makes sure this "wastewater" gets properly treated and tested, so it can be safely returned to the river for the fish, wildlife and communities downstream who depend on it, just like we do.

Making sure wastewater is clean and safe also helps ensure the river will be a place all of us can enjoy and explore for years to come.

Take a look at how it all happens.

Think before you flush

What you flush down the toilet can create problems for your own pipes and for our environment. Learn what not to flush.