Domestic Well Water Quality in Alberta - Routine Chemistry

In rural Alberta, 90 per cent of people use private well water supplies for domestic use (e.g., drinking, cooking, bathing). Domestic well water systems are not regulated by the provincial or federal governments. The Government of Alberta along with Alberta Health Services (AHS) provides water chemistry testing of private well water and information and advice on safe water for domestic purposes; however, it is the responsibility of well owners to ensure the quality and safety of their water supply. Water quality may be impacted by contamination from natural sources or human activities and cause noticeable aesthetic issues or potential health concerns. Water samples are collected and submitted by well owners through local AHS sites for analysis of routine chemistry and trace element parameters. Routine chemistry testing focuses on the suitability of the water for drinking and household use with two health-related parameters. For trace elements, testing used to be conducted only when there were health concerns or when the water was suspected to contain chemicals of concern (2001 to Sep 2018). Currently, trace element testing is completed for all samples submitted for routine analysis (if the sample volume is sufficient). The Alberta Centre for Toxicology has conducted the analyses of raw domestic well water samples since March 2004. From 2001 to Mar 2004, testing was conducted by Enviro-Test Laboratories. Limited information is available regarding the analytical methods and detection limits for this lab; therefore, users are advised to exercise caution when using the 2001 to Mar 2004 data. These datasets contain the routine chemistry results for raw well water samples collected from 2001 to 2018. Corrections may be made to the dataset over time (e.g., removal of samples deemed to be treated); users should regularly check for updates and download the most current versions. For additional information, refer to the publications on the “Related” tab of this webpage.

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated October 22, 2024, 15:20 (UTC)
Created October 1, 2024, 07:14 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Health
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2017-01-17
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
Government of Alberta | Gouvernement de l'Alberta
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Government of Alberta; Government of Alberta; Health, health.ephs@gov.ab.ca
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
health.ephs@gov.ab.ca
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Field Value
Source
Source of the dataset.
https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/44dc425c-535f-4dbc-98f7-09fc772a6e95
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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