# Water Quality in Queretaro



## WholeHearted

I'm wondering about the water quality of tap water in Santiago de Queretaro, for cooking and disinfecting vegetables. (I'm purchasing the garafones for drinking water.)

I know some places in the world have heavy metals in the tap water, in addition to microbes, so boiling doesn't necessarily make it safe to drink.

Areas of the state of Queretaro had a lot of mining in the past. Are there concerns about arsenic or other heavy metals here in the city?


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## Guest

The drinking water in Queretaro is fine. Here is a news story from last November:

TIENE QUERÉTARO AGUA DE CALIDAD : Plaza de Armas

Here are the MX regulations on potable water - if you scroll down to section 4.2 you can see the permissible limits and understand them even if you don't know Spanish. Querétaro complies:

NOM-127-SSA1-1994

Most of the mining around Querétaro was for cantera (stone blocks). There were other types of metals mining in the past, but farther northeast. Lake Zimapan on the border with Hidalgo state was created in an area of these old mines. It is used for hydro, but also has great fishing. You cannot eat the fish though because of the water contamination (both from old mines and runoff from a few small villages on its shores.

Here is an abstract on Zimapan - if you scroll down it's in English:
http://www.aguaenmexico.org/images/estados10enero/Hidalgo/Arsenic zimapan.pdf


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## MJB5293

WholeHearted said:


> I'm wondering about the water quality of tap water in Santiago de Queretaro, for cooking and disinfecting vegetables. (I'm purchasing the garafones for drinking water.)
> 
> I know some places in the world have heavy metals in the tap water, in addition to microbes, so boiling doesn't necessarily make it safe to drink.
> 
> Areas of the state of Queretaro had a lot of mining in the past. Are there concerns about arsenic or other heavy metals here in the city?


hi I live in Santiago de Queretaro and we only use the filtered water for cooking and drinking the last time i was in the states i bought a zero water because it had a free gage that would test the water. the water at my home regestered 371 from the tap which is not good I even took it to cosco one time as they we showing a water filter and i tested ther water which came out still at 127


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## Queretaro

I actually had a friend from the U.S. who worked for 2 years at the water commission here in here in Querétaro. He told me that the water treatment plant of the city is top of the line. The water that gets processed there can is actually as clean as the water from the U.S. The problem actually happens after it leaves the treatment plant. The cities piping system is very old, and there is a major problem of ground water leaking into the pipes. So by the time the water gets to you tap is is no longer drinkable. In general it should still be fine for boiling vegetables or brushing your teeth but he did not recommend drinking it.
On a personal note, we use it for both of those things and have never had any problems. But for any water we will drink - for soup for example - we have a water filter on our faucet.

Hope this helps.


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## TundraGreen

Queretaro said:


> I actually had a friend from the U.S. who worked for 2 years at the water commission here in here in Querétaro. He told me that the water treatment plant of the city is top of the line. The water that gets processed there can is actually as clean as the water from the U.S. The problem actually happens after it leaves the treatment plant. The cities piping system is very old, and there is a major problem of ground water leaking into the pipes. So by the time the water gets to you tap is is no longer drinkable. In general it should still be fine for boiling vegetables or brushing your teeth but he did not recommend drinking it.
> On a personal note, we use it for both of those things and have never had any problems. But for any water we will drink - for soup for example - we have a water filter on our faucet.
> 
> Hope this helps.


I was told the same thing by a man who works for CONAGUA, the Mexican federal water agency. The problem is not the treatment plants. The water is clean when it leaves them. The problem is leaks in the pipes between the treatment plant and the end users. The pipes allow clean water to leak out, and they allow contaminated ground water to get into the pipes. He said 95% of the time, tap water is clean and fine to drink but once in awhile it can be contaminated. I know someone who routinely drank water from the tap and she never had a problem that I heard about. But it is not a good idea; a 5% chance of contamination seems way too high for me. I do use tap water for anything that will be boiled: soup, coffee, rice.


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## Longford

TundraGreen said:


> I was told the same thing by a man who works for CONAGUA, the Mexican federal water agency. The problem is not the treatment plants. The water is clean when it leaves them. The problem is leaks in the pipes between the treatment plant and the end users. The pipes allow clean water to leak out, and they allow contaminated ground water to get into the pipes. He said 95% of the time, tap water is clean and fine to drink but once in awhile it can be contaminated. I know someone who routinely drank water from the tap and she never had a problem that I heard about. But it is not a good idea; a 5% chance of contamination seems way too high for me. I do use tap water for anything that will be boiled: soup, coffee, rice.


Mexico City water comes from the filtration plant safe/ready to drink, as well ... from what I understand. But, as with other cities, there are delivery infrastructure problems. Remember, too, that many buildings in Mexico, and in Mexico City as one example, which have water storage tanks on the roofs of the buildings. While some of the newer single-family residential tanks are properly sealed there are lots and lots of buildings, including ones I've lived in, where they were not and not regularly cleaned or sanitized and it's easy for bacteria and other contamination to build-up ... and for some of us to become ill as a result.


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## RVGRINGO

If you doubt the quality of your water supply, you may make your water safe to drink by adding two drops of 'cloro' to each liter of water. Alternatively, you could use one drop per liter of the drops used for washing vegetables. Let the treated water sit for 30 minutes and you may drink it.
We haven't used garafones or bottled water for a decade, but be warned; we got older anyway.


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