10-14 in downtown Vancouver

No, a lower number means less total dissolved solids. That's salts , in all their forms. These salts (minerals) aren't used to determine DW quality. Things like PO4, NO3, Si, organic carbons, etc are used to determine drinking water quality. You'll have to have a lab analysis to determine what your water quality is, as we don't have test kits for the bad stuff.

go here to have a look.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/water/en/manage/qual/e_measur.htm

That's funny.

I would have thought that the better or best water would have a low TDS count. I know part of the testing is subjective in regards to taste.

Now where I live we are actually on a seperate aquaduct, we aren't tapped into Chilliwack's main supply, but we are quite close by so my numbers actually shocked me abit. That's partly why I wanted to get results from other people.

BC definitely has got some great water.

Calgary gets its water from the Elbow river.

There are a lot of factors that go into water flavour, TDS, mineral and ion content.

Low TDS does not really equate to better taste. Just try some RO or distilled water. Some of it can be pretty nasty.

I'm no hydrologist but I doubt taste has anything to do with purity. Isn't pure lab-grade H2O supposed to be bad for you? And everyone runs around paying money for water from glaciers, water that has been sitting for 10,000 years. Maybe it gets better with age.

Oh the taste thing was in reference to different conpetitions that Chilliwack has won. So you are correct that it has nothing to do with purity.

The aquafir that supplies the water out here has tested for low nitrate and low microbial contamination. So I guess that explains why TDS readings don't indicate everything about our water.

I know that Chilliwacks water boasts it has half the contaminats of bottled water. So other than paying for the fancy blue bottle, I'd be wasting money paying for the bottle water that isn't as good as the water coming out of our local taps.

I've always considered bottled water a scam. In Europe, Dasani comes from London's public water supply, and Toronto is talking about bottling and selling their water as well.

FWIW, "south" Calgary gets its water from the Elbow. North gets it from the Bow. You'd think they'd be fairly similar but I seem to recall the last time I ever looked into this they were surprisingly distinct.

Not that it matters, it's more just something of an observation I find interesting.

I live in surrey and the TDS=8

110 pre RO, clearbrook waterworks, Abbotsford