Whitehorse to meet with coffee shop owners over hard water

The City of Whitehorse says it plans to meet with coffee shop owners having problems with hard water to help come up with some solutions.

Brian Crist, director of Infrastructure and Operations for the City of Whitehorse, says the city has been using groundwater for six years. Some of the city's coffee shop owners say the harder water is also hard on their equipment.

"Our water consistently meets Health Canada guidelines and the objectives for hardness in water is related to esthetics objectives, it's not a health objective, so we are well within those guidelines," he said.

Hard water has higher levels of dissolved minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, than soft water. The dissolved minerals can cause build-up in appliances such as kettles, coffee-makers and water heaters.

"For coffee shops and other commercial applications that require softer water, there are point of use treatment systems available that commercial businesses often put in ahead of their appliances to combat any hardness in the water," he said.