Aquifer and Treatment Process Key to Winning Quality

An expert panel of flavor profilers at the American Water Works Association’s annual conference in June selected Fredericton’s municipal drinking water as the top entry among 32 regional winners across North America, judging the supply on consistency, aroma, and taste.

City water and sewer division manager Trent Brewer credited the achievement to long-term infrastructure choices. “We’ve always thought we had a good product. This just confirms that what we thought was right,” Brewer said. “It’s years and years of us and city council that are making the right decisions on investing into our water and sewer systems.”

Groundwater Source Gives Edge in Competition

The city’s supply relies on 11 downtown production wells tapping into a subterranean aquifer fed by the St. John River, delivering roughly 20 million liters of naturally filtered groundwater daily. UNB Fredericton civil engineering professor Kerry MacQuarrie, a researcher at the Canadian Rivers Institute, explained that groundwater composition plays a major role in flavor. “It’s mainly the mineral content. What’s dissolved in the water would give it its taste,” MacQuarrie said, adding that while taste is subjective rather than a scientific measure of quality, it still reflects safety and effective treatment.

Daily Operations and Future Growth

Fredericton distributes water across 440 kilometers of main lines to approximately 18,500 customers after processing at two local plants. Treatment plant operator Bennett Moss noted that while raw groundwater is safe to drink, operators add chlorine to disinfect and eliminate manganese, alongside lime to balance pH levels and filter out solids. “Once it goes through the treatment, it goes into reaction vessels where it sort of mixes around. It goes through filters. That’s where all the solids are sort of pulled out,” Moss said. “After that, it leaves the plant and heads on out into our distribution system.”

To ensure compliance with national safety standards, the municipality tests water samples weekly from roughly 50 locations through an independent laboratory. Fredericton currently invests about $30 million annually in capital and operational expenses, with plans to add two new production wells to accommodate population growth.