Another Water Question

http://www.okc.gov/CCR_2012.pdf

This is last years water report...I see lots of interesting items on here, however, the Turbidity/Alkalinity levels are confusing me. It really doesn't say what ppm the calcium carbonate or lime levels are just what %total turbidty is of the total content of the water. Besides I'm not totally sure how to read that crap. My water comes from the Overholser reservoir, in one row it says monthly lowest 91.9% and the row below it says Highest single reading 0.83? I think the city hires people just to make these terrible charts to confuse people.

In any case it looks like I have pretty hard water, but don't really know to what extent. Any help with this chart would help. Also the NTU thing is throwing me off the chart says to the right its a measure of calcium carbonate/lime but how is that? NTUs just are measure of stuff in the water that makes it hazy..that means anything which is scary.

I don't see any information on that report that is useful for brewing. You need to have the water tested.

mabrungard said:

I don't see any information on that report that is useful for brewing. You need to have the water tested.

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Figured as much. Time to spring for a test.

zeptrey said:

http://www.okc.gov/CCR_2012.pdf

This is last years water report...I see lots of interesting items on here, however, the Turbidity/Alkalinity levels are confusing me. It really doesn't say what ppm the calcium carbonate or lime levels are just what %total turbidty is of the total content of the water.

Click to expand...

Actually it says nothing about the calcium carbonate or lime levels nor does it say anything about the % total turbidity. What it does give is the percentage samples which are less that the threshold at which treatment is required. As that's most of them the water is considered acceptably clear.

zeptrey said:

Besides I'm not totally sure how to read that crap. My water comes from the Overholser reservoir, in one row it says monthly lowest 91.9% and the row below it says Highest single reading 0.83? I think the city hires people just to make these terrible charts to confuse people.

Click to expand...

That row says that in the worst mont 91.9% of readings were less than 0.3NTU and that the highest reading was 0.83 NTU. This is standard industry stuff but it can be confusing to lay people.

zeptrey said:

In any case it looks like I have pretty hard water, but don't really know to what extent.

Click to expand...

The water is probably reasonably soft but the only clue to this is the citation of particlate calcium carbonate and lime as a source of turbidity. There is no data about hardness anywhere in the report. In fact there is no useful data at all with one exception: your water contains a fairly hefty amount of chloramine. You will have to remove this before you brew. For pointers see https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/campden-tablets-sulfites-brewing-water-361073/.

zeptrey said:

Also the NTU thing is throwing me off the chart says to the right its a measure of calcium carbonate/lime but how is that?

Click to expand...

No, it doesn't say that.

zeptrey said:

NTUs just are measure of stuff in the water that makes it hazy..that means anything which is scary.

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This is not something you need to worry about in brewing. I can't even see haze in water at 1 NTU and yours is appreciably clearer than that.