| Some community water supply facilities are putting "water softening" capabilities on referenda—but it’s important for your customers to understand that central municipal softening is not as effective as home water softening.
You can also point out to both customers and local media that centralized softening takes away their consumer choices. Some people may not want to pay the price for softened water and others may use the water for purposes that they feel don’t require water softening.
Municipal water softening is most usually accomplished by a process called cold lime-soda ash water treatment. This technology can only partially soften water, down to 5 to 10 grains per gallon (gpg) of equivalent CaCO3 hardness, and there is a total dissolved solids reduction about equal to the temporary calcium hardness [Ca(HCO3)2] reduction. Magnesium and noncarbonate hardness is replaced in this process by sodium.
This is the WQA table that describes the various levels or degrees of water hardness.
| Hardness (grains per gallon) | Classification |
| | Less than 1.0 | Soft | | 1.0 to 3.5 | Slightly Hard | | 3.5 to 7.0 | Moderately Hard | | 7.0 to 10.5 | Hard | | 10.5 and over | Very Hard | As you can see, municipal softening leaves the water from moderately hard to hard. Five to 10 grains per
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Sat, Jul 31, 2010
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Copyright 2010 by the Water Quality Association – All rights reserved.
Water Quality Association
International Headquarters & Laboratory
4151 Naperville Road
Lisle, IL 60532-3696
USA
630 505 0160, Fax 630 505 9637
info@wqa.org, www.wqa.org
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