What is in our water?
Your drinking water contains naturally occurring minerals such as calcium, iron, manganese and magnesium. The levels of these minerals can vary causing very slight differences in taste, odour and colour.
'Hard' drinking water is mainly the result of high levels of calcium and magnesium and makes it difficult to work up a lather or suds for washing.
Unlike most of Europe where water is ‘hard’, our water has very small amounts of calcium and magnesium (referred to as ‘soft’ water). You do not need to add salt to appliances to soften the water as recommended by many European manufacturers and appliances can be left on the factory default settings. Please see our Water Quality Reports for hardness results in your area.
NOTE: Often dishwasher suppliers quote hardness results in mmol/L. The conversion is 1mmol/L = 100mg/L.
Your drinking water also contains sodium. While the contribution of drinking water to dietary sodium intake is in most cases very low, persons on a very low sodium diet should be aware that Unitywater’s drinking water typically contains between 20 and 50 milligrams (0.02 to 0.05 grams) of sodium per litre of water. Please contact us if more specific information is required.
Disinfectant
There are two main chemicals used to disinfect drinking water supplies throughout Australia – chlorine and chloramine. A small amount of residual disinfectant is generally present in your drinking water once it reaches your tap.
At Unitywater we carefully monitor disinfectant levels to ensure the microbiological safety of your drinking water, while trying to minimise the associated taste and odour.
You can eliminate any taste or smell of chlorine by simply filling an uncovered container with tap water, placing it in the fridge, and letting it sit for a couple of hours.
If you are sensitive to the smell or taste, you might want to consider domestic water filters or jug filters.
Fluoride
The Queensland State Government made the decision to add fluoride into Queensland’s water supplies. Fluoride is added to water via the water treatment plants, which are now owned and operated by Seqwater, a Queensland State Government entity.
For health information on water fluoridation, visit the Queensland Health website.