Tuxford Water Is Very Hard — Here's What It Costs You Each Year

Why Is Tuxford Water So Hard?

Tuxford gets its water from Buffalo Pound Lake, treated and delivered by the SaskWater Buffalo Pound Potable Water Supply System. That makes this a surface-water story, not a groundwater one. No deep wells, no limestone aquifers. The hardness comes from what the water picks up on its way to the lake and while it sits there.

Buffalo Pound Lake is a shallow, nutrient-rich lake in south-central Saskatchewan, fed mainly by the Qu’Appelle River system. The Qu’Appelle drains a wide stretch of prairie that sits on top of glacial till and underlying bedrock rich in carbonate minerals, including dolomite and limestone. Rain and snowmelt run across this terrain and, because the water is slightly acidic from decaying vegetation, it slowly dissolves calcium and magnesium out of those minerals. That dissolved load flows downstream into Buffalo Pound Lake, where it concentrates further. The lake is also shallow and well-mixed, so there’s no deep, cooler layer of softer water to draw from. What comes into the lake largely stays in the lake.

There’s another factor at play here: evaporation and residence time. Prairie lakes like Buffalo Pound don’t flush through quickly. Water sits in the basin, evaporates, and leaves dissolved solids behind. Every cycle of evaporation and recharge nudges the hardness a little higher. By the time SaskWater pulls raw water from the lake and treats it, the hardness is sitting at roughly 12.63 GPG, or 216 ppm. That puts Tuxford squarely in the “very hard” category, which the USGS defines as anything above 10.5 GPG. For context, the USGS puts the national average around 7.3 GPG, and about 85% of US households deal with hard water. Tuxford is running nearly double the national average.

The treatment process at Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corp. is designed primarily for clarity and safety, not softening. They remove sediment, pathogens, and manage disinfection byproducts, but they don’t strip out the calcium and magnesium. That’s not a failure of the plant. It’s standard practice. Hardness is classified by the EPA as an aesthetic issue, not a health hazard, so it falls under a Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level rather than an enforceable health standard. The water is safe. It’s just mineral-rich.

How Tuxford Compares to Nearby Cities

Tuxford sits in a region where hard water is simply the norm. The communities around it draw from the same underlying geology, and several pull directly from the same surface-water system.

Regina, the nearest major city, also gets its water from Buffalo Pound Lake through the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corp. That means Regina households are dealing with essentially the same raw water chemistry as Tuxford. If you’ve got relatives in Regina complaining about scale on their faucets, you’re not imagining it. You’re drinking from the same lake. The hardness levels track closely because the source is identical.

Moose Jaw, to the west, is a slightly different story. The city has a mix of surface water and groundwater sources depending on the season and demand. When Moose Jaw draws from Buffalo Pound Lake, the water is comparable to Tuxford’s. But Moose Jaw also operates wells that tap into deeper aquifers, and those can vary in hardness depending on which formation they’re pulling from. Some of those wells produce water that’s harder than the lake. Some produce water that’s softer. It’s a mixed bag, and it changes throughout the year.

Smaller communities in the region, like those drawing from the Qu’Appelle River system or local wells, all sit on the same glacial till and carbonate bedrock. They’re all going to see elevated hardness. The exact number will bounce around based on well depth, local geology, and treatment choices, but nobody in this corner of Saskatchewan is drinking soft water straight from the tap.

The practical difference for Tuxford residents is that you’re dealing with a consistent, known quantity. Lake water chemistry shifts with the seasons, but it doesn’t swing wildly the way some groundwater wells do. What you see on your water bill today is close to what you’ll get next month. That consistency actually makes it easier to size a softener or set a dishwasher’s hardness dial, because you’re not chasing a moving target.

How does Tuxford stack up against the rest of Saskatchewan? It's very hard at 12.63 GPG — White City, Edenwold, and Emerald Park sit nearby with different numbers. See the full hardest-water ranking for context.

See where Tuxford sits on the Saskatchewan water hardness map →

Want the broader explainer on what hardness actually is and how it behaves? Read hard water vs. soft water, explained.