Edmonton's Water Cycle

Your water's journey

Beginning in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, your water flows down the North Saskatchewan River before reaching the Rossdale and E.L. Smith Water Treatment Plants. There, your water is treated before traveling to your home.

Your water cycle utilities

Our treatment facilities take up to 12 hours to clarify, disinfect and fully treat the water. During this process, our water quality testing lab tests and adjusts for hundreds of parameters so we can provide you with high-quality drinking water for safety, colour, smell and taste.

Your water then travels thousands of kilometers of underground pipe to make sure it's always there when you turn on your tap, take a shower or flush your toilet. The drainage system then captures and takes away sewer water for processing at Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. In addition, hundreds of stormwater management facilities across Edmonton capture and filter rainwater for delivery back to the North Saskatchewan River and other waterways thereby protecting the environment.

Edmonton's water cycle utilities include:

2 water treatment plants and 1 wastewater treatment plant
13 water reservoirs that can hold 811 million litres of water
7,065 km of water mains and sewer pipes
262,363 customer connections to the sanitary system
21,708 hydrants and 73,940 water valves
295 stormwater pond facilities

Your water cycle highlights

Investing in our watershed

We've invested in programs like our watershed partnership, that includes 19 monitoring stations that test for turbidity, colour, and metals to determine long-term changes in water quality.

North America's best tasting tap water

EPCOR's Water Treatment process led Edmonton to be named North America's best tasting tap water in 2019 by the American Water Works Association.

Minimizing the number of water interruptions

We improve the distribution system every year with our renewal and cathodic protection programs to minimize the number of water interruptions to customers. On average, there were 13% fewer water main breaks in

Expanding our lead management program

The continued expansion of our Lead Management Program helps maintain water quality by replacing lead service lines, and adding orthophosphate to provide lead reduction for all Edmontonians.

Improving our drainage system

Our Stormwater Integrated Resource Plan includes significant improvements to Edmonton's drainage system, designed to slow and move stormwater away from high-risk flood areas.

Flood mitigation strategy

We're working to build a flood resilient future. The impacts of flooding to citizens, the environment, and property are substantial. Our work will include a combination of homeowner programs, drainage system improvements, green infrastructure and planning.