Kinmount Water Is Soft — Here's What It Costs You Each Year

Why Is Kinmount Water So Soft?

Kinmount sits in the northern part of the City of Kawartha Lakes, and its drinking water comes from the Kinmount Drinking Water System, which draws from surface water sources in the area. That’s the key to understanding why the water measures just 3 GPG (47 ppm), which puts it squarely in the soft category.

Surface water in this part of Ontario doesn’t spend much time soaking through mineral-rich rock. Rain and snowmelt run off the Canadian Shield terrain, which is dominated by ancient granite and other hard, crystalline rocks. Granite is notoriously stingy when it comes to dissolving into water. Unlike limestone or dolomite, which are essentially compressed calcium and magnesium carbonate, granite is made of quartz and feldspar, minerals that resist dissolving even after centuries of contact with water. So the water picks up very little calcium or magnesium on its journey to the treatment plant.

The Burnt River, which flows through Kinmount, is the main surface water source feeding this system. The river drains a watershed that’s a mix of forested land, wetlands, and rocky outcrops, all of which contribute minimal dissolved minerals. Wetlands and bogs in the headwaters can add organic material and tannins, which give the water a slight colour, but they don’t add hardness. The result is water that starts soft and stays soft through treatment. The utility does add fluoride for dental health, and the water does contain some naturally occurring calcium and magnesium, but at 47 ppm total hardness, it’s nowhere near the 7 GPG threshold the USGS uses to classify water as hard.

That’s the whole story here. Kinmount isn’t sitting on a limestone aquifer that’s slowly dissolving into the water supply. It’s drawing from a surface water system that runs over some of the oldest, hardest rock on the continent. Soft water is the natural outcome, not a treatment achievement.

How Kinmount Compares to Nearby Cities

Because Kinmount’s water comes from a surface water source on the Canadian Shield, it’s going to be consistently softer than communities that rely on groundwater. The USGS national average is about 7.3 GPG, and water above 7 GPG is classified as hard, with anything over 10.5 GPG considered very hard. Kinmount’s 3 GPG sits well below both thresholds.

The practical difference shows up in everyday life. On soft water, the WQA and Battelle Memorial Institute found in their 2010 detergent study that households use up to 50% less laundry detergent and up to 70% less dish soap compared to hard water conditions. That’s not a small saving. It also means less scale buildup in pipes and on fixtures, and water heaters run more efficiently. Battelle and the WQRF found that gas water heaters lose about 4% efficiency per 5 GPG of hardness, and the DOE notes that just a quarter inch of scale can cut efficiency by up to 40%. Kinmount residents simply don’t deal with that problem.

For comparison, communities in southern Ontario that draw from groundwater sources, particularly those over limestone or dolomite bedrock, routinely see hardness levels in the 10 to 20 GPG range. That’s the difference between the Shield and the sedimentary basins to the south. Kinmount’s neighbours to the north, in places like Haliburton County, also tend to have soft surface water for the same geological reasons. Based on the WQA-commissioned Battelle Memorial Institute study, hard water is estimated to cost the average affected household more each year in extra energy, premature appliance wear, and additional cleaning products — see the cost calculator on this page for the number scaled to this city’s actual hardness. That’s an industry estimate, not a measured study, but it gives you a sense of the stakes. Kinmount households are largely spared that expense because the water arrives soft from the source. If you’re comparing water quality across the Kawartha Lakes region, the dividing line is geology, not municipal boundaries. Surface water over the Shield means soft water, and that’s exactly what Kinmount gets.

How does Kinmount stack up against the rest of Ontario? It's soft at 3 GPG — Woodstock, Guelph, and Ingersoll sit nearby with different numbers. See the full hardest-water ranking for context.

See where Kinmount sits on the Ontario water hardness map →

Want the broader explainer on what hardness actually is and how it behaves? Read hard water vs. soft water, explained.