Portland Turning on the Wells

Breaking news:

The city of Portland, Oregon, USA is temporarily activating their groundwater supply system from Aug. 9th through Aug 23rd, 2011.

This operation has the potential to have an impact on the substance content of the water received by Portland's beer consumers and brewers. How significant of an impact? Well, it depends. How much does it depend? I'm glad you asked. Here's a PDF with all the juicy watery details.

On a normal brewing day, the very-beer'ed city of Portland receives its water from a reservoir supply, known as the "Bull Run" reservoir. The Bull Run supply is pretty soft water, which matters to a lot of brewers. But the well supply is ten times harder. Even though the source pH is staying the same --- precisely 8.0 --- there will be some changes. Let's go ahead and take a look at a few of them. Since the PDF states that Portland consumers may receive groundwater in combination with reservoir water, these figures are maximum potential increases, assuming you'd get the blend.

Hardness as CaCO3 is doubling, from 7 to 14ppm
Calcium is increasing from 1.7 to 3.1ppm
Magnesium is increasing from 0.7 to 1.5ppm
Sodium is increasing from 3.7 to 4.3ppm

Will this actually affect you? Okay, okay, Don't bet on it. Do you really think you're that consistent from batch-to-batch in your own brewing? Come on! But it is an interesting read to check out the report.