HELP! Alkalinity in Boston (MWRA) Water Report

[DirtWagon]

My water report is unclear about its parameters for measuring alkalinity.

See the last page here:
http://www.mwra.com/monthly/wqupdate/pdf/cy2014/122014.pdf

Alkalinity is simply reported as "39.8"
Should I assume this is referring to alkalinity as HCO3?

 

[MrHadack]

Hi DirtWagon. I'm a fellow Boston area brewer and I use MWRA water as well, so I can help you out.

The alkalinity is reported as CaCO3. So if you're using "Bru'n Water" you can enter that number straight into the "Reported Total Alkalinity" cell on the water report input tab.

As for the reliability of that report, I've had my water tested by Ward Labs, and the results that came back closely matched those provided by the MWRA report. So that report is accurate.