Fallingbrook Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Fallingbrook (a residential neighbourhood in eastern Ottawa, near Innes Road and the Orleans corridor — a post-1980s family suburban community of detached homes and crescents east of the Queensway in the Orleans–Cumberland area) receives its drinking water from the City of Ottawa, drawing from the Ottawa River via the Britannia Water Purification Plant (or the Lemieux Island plant depending on distribution routing). Water undergoes ozonation, biofiltration, UV disinfection, and chloramination, meeting all Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality (GCDWQ) standards. Hardness in the Fallingbrook distribution zone is 117.5 mg/L (6.9 gpg) — classified as moderately hard by Health Canada, with TDS of 262 mg/L, consistent with the Ottawa River supply character across Ottawa's eastern suburban corridor.

Fallingbrook's 117.5 mg/L is consistent with the Ottawa-wide pattern of moderately hard Ottawa River supply (Centretown 116.5 mg/L), confirming that the eastern Orleans/Fallingbrook sub-zone receives the same mixed Shield and Lowlands Ottawa River supply as the rest of Ottawa's distribution network. The Ottawa River at Ottawa blends soft Precambrian Shield runoff from the Laurentian highlands with harder Ordovician limestone and Silurian dolostone Lowlands water from the Ottawa Valley carbonate shelf, producing a consistent moderately hard 115–120 mg/L supply throughout the city.

At 117.5 mg/L, Fallingbrook residents experience moderate scale deposits — descaling every six to eight weeks is adequate. Hot water tanks operate reliably at this hardness. The City of Ottawa provides water quality information at ottawa.ca/water. Fallingbrook's predominantly post-1980s housing stock was constructed after the elimination of lead solder from plumbing, significantly reducing lead exposure risk, though the Health Canada precautionary guidance remains applicable.