What we’re doing to maintain the safety and quality of your drinking water
Gainesville’s drinking water comes from the Floridan aquifer. We test and treat it at the Murphree Water Treatment Plant.
Water Quality
GRU takes great care to ensure that our water remains safe and available on demand for approximately 200,000 residents. Gainesville's water consumption is about 23 million gallons a day on average, but to handle the extra demand placed on the system by drought conditions, we have constructed additional supply wells (for a total of 15 wells) — allowing us to pump and deliver up to 54 million gallons of high-quality drinking water per day. Our consumptive use permit allows us to provide our customers with up to 30 million gallons per day of high-quality drinking water. GRU delivers approximately 8 billion gallons of drinking water to our community every year.
- Minimal treatment of the water drawn from the Floridan aquifer is required. Nevertheless, it is closely monitored throughout the multi-step treatment and distribution processes.
- Personnel from our Murphree Water Treatment Plant test the drinking water on an hourly basis and conduct additional testing throughout the distribution system. Over 63,900 samples are analyzed each year.
- Although a virtually impermeable layer of clay protects the aquifer in this area, GRU purchased and maintains a conservation easement for 7,100 acres surrounding our water plant. This in order to protect the aquifer against possible contamination.
Water Chemistry
In case you are curious, here are answers to some of the most common water chemistry questions we receive from home brewers and aquaculture enthusiasts. You can learn more about GRU's water quality data in our annual Water Quality Report.
- Hardness: Approximately 140 mg/L as CaCO3 (8.2 grains/gal)
- pH: 8.6
- Sulfate: 97.4 mg/L
- Chloride: 26.3 mg/L
- Ammonia: 0.24 mg/L
Click here to view frequently asked questions about water quality.
Water Resources
Supplying Future Needs
Saving water is an important part of ensuring an adequate supply of safe drinking water for future generations. Our efforts include: