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Re: Seasonal changes in water hardness/pH




On Fri, 19 May 2000, Sylvia wrote:

> I've been through a massive headache the past few days. I don't know if this
> is just a problem with my local water authority or seasonal thing around the
> country.

Seasonal changes in water quality are very common in water systems that
use smaller rivers or reservoirs as their source.  Typically you might
expect a drop in hardness during periods of high runoff (typically,
spring) and a gradual increase in hardness at other times.  The changes
can be very large in systems that combine surface water and ground water
sources.  Often there is a large difference in the quality of the water
supplied from the two sources and seasonal changes in the amount of water
available from the two supplies can create big changes in the overall
water quality.

This is also true - though with somewhat more subdued extremes - for
systems that use ground water influenced by surface water.

Systems supplied by deep water wells are subject to fewer changes, but
even in those systems there is usually a variation in water quality from
well to well and there can be changes in the quality of water as
different wells are brought into use and others are shut down.  Those
changes aren't necessarily seasonal.


Roger Miller