Buffalo's own 2022 Water Quality Report says its Silurian aquifer was determined to be highly susceptible to contamination, because the aquifer and overlying materials "provide little protection" at the land surface. It is the only Scott County assessment that reads that way. That describes the geology, not your pipes, and a good reason to test your own tap.
| Buffalo water at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Utility | Buffalo Water Supply, city-owned. PWSID IA8218050, about 1,176 people served (EPA SDWIS) |
| Water source | Dolomite of the Silurian aquifer, per Buffalo's 2022 CCR and the Iowa DNR Source Water Protection Tracker |
| Softened at the plant? | No. SDWIS lists cascade aeration, gravity and sand filtration, and gaseous chlorination. That is an iron-removal train with no softening step |
| Published hardness | None. Buffalo's CCR reports no hardness figure at all |
The phrase comes from the Iowa DNR source water assessment that Buffalo Water Supply prints in its own annual report. It is a description of the rock the wells sit in, not a finding about the water inside your house. Silurian dolomite is fractured rock, and in Buffalo the soil and rock layers above the well do not filter much on the way down. The CCR names the kinds of surface sources that matter for a well like this: leaking underground storage tanks, contaminant spills, and excess fertilizer application.
Every other Silurian system in Scott County is rated only slightly susceptible or low. Buffalo's rating is the outlier, and it is worth knowing plainly rather than being surprised by it. It also has a straightforward practical meaning for a homeowner. A susceptibility rating is about the source. What comes out of your kitchen faucet has also traveled through the distribution system and your own house plumbing. The only way to know that water is to sample that water.
The city's 2022 report shows no violations in any row. Total trihalomethanes came in at an LRAA of 34 ppb against a limit of 80, haloacetic acids at 7 ppb against 60, and chlorine at a running annual average of 1.5 ppm. At the wellhead, sodium was measured at 20 ppm and xylenes at 0.0005 ppm against an MCL of 10. The 2021 lead and copper tap sampling put the 90th percentile at 1 ppb of lead against an action level of 15 ppb, and 0.11 ppm of copper against an action level of 1.3 ppm. The report's violation column reads No on every one of those rows. Those are Buffalo Water Supply's numbers, published by Buffalo Water Supply.
What the report never gives you is hardness. Hardness has no federal limit, so no utility is required to publish it, and Buffalo does not. The Iowa DNR sample database has no usable hardness records for Buffalo either. We will not hand you a number borrowed from a neighboring town, because the Quad Cities figures come from Mississippi River water on an entirely different system, and the wells around Buffalo vary. If your water leaves a chalky film on the shower door or eats through soap, that tells you something. A test tells you how much.
This is the county-wide backdrop. We queried the EPA SDWIS treatment table for every public water system whose PWSID begins with IA82, looking for a softening objective. The only matches in Scott County are golf courses, campgrounds and mobile home parks running point-of-entry units for themselves. Not one community water system in the county softens, including Buffalo Water Supply. Softening in Buffalo is something that happens in your basement or it does not happen at all. The same is true in Davenport, Walcott and Blue Grass, and it is the through line across the whole Iowa Quad Cities.
Buffalo homes are on city water, so most of them are a straightforward single-tank job. Our prices are all-in: equipment, installation, taxes, and a lifetime parts warranty. No line items added later.
Financing is 0%, and there is a $100 discount for military and first responders. Our optional annual maintenance plan is $199 a year for a home with a tank RO and $249 a year for a home with a tankless RO. Service outside a plan is a $199 diagnostic visit, or a $99 trip charge plus the part when you already know what failed. More detail lives on our water softeners and reverse osmosis pages.
Buffalo Water Supply's service area stops where the city does. Plenty of households in Buffalo Township and along the river bluffs draw from their own Silurian wells, and they carry the same susceptibility story with none of the city's testing behind them. No CCR arrives in the mail, and nobody is chlorinating for you.
For those homes we build a well package: a dual-tank system at $3,450, or $3,800 with a tank RO. UV disinfection adds $700 and a sediment pre-filter adds $500, both well-only. Which of those you actually need is a question the water sample answers, not a question we answer over the phone. Our well water treatment page walks through how we size it.
We are a local Iowa company, licensed and insured. Our softeners are built from NSF/ANSI 44 certified components and our reverse osmosis systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58, and we will show you the certificates rather than talk around them. Installation is done by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind, so you are not chasing two companies when something needs attention. And we quote one number that includes everything.
We also do not pretend to know your water before we have seen it. In a town where the utility publishes no hardness figure and the state rates the aquifer highly susceptible, a real sample from your own kitchen is worth more than any average.
It takes about twenty minutes at your kitchen sink. We test hardness in grains per gallon, check for iron and the chlorine you are tasting, and walk you through what the numbers mean for your fixtures, your laundry and your water heater. Then you get a straight recommendation and a price, with no obligation and no pressure to decide that day. Schedule your free water test and we will come to you.
We install throughout the Iowa Quad Cities, including Davenport, Blue Grass, Walcott and Princeton, with the full metro picture on our Quad Cities page.
No. A susceptibility rating describes the ground the wells sit in, not a test result. Buffalo's 2022 Water Quality Report shows no violations in any row: total trihalomethanes at 34 ppb against a limit of 80, haloacetic acids at 7 ppb against 60, and the lead 90th percentile at 1 ppb against an action level of 15 ppb.
The phrase comes from the Iowa DNR source water assessment printed in Buffalo's 2022 CCR. It means the aquifer and the materials above the well provide little protection from the land surface, naming leaking underground storage tanks, spills and excess fertilizer. It describes the geology, not a violation. That same report shows no violations in any row.
Hardness first, since Buffalo publishes no hardness figure at all and there is nothing to size a system from. Then iron, and the chlorine you can taste from the plant's gaseous chlorination. Our free in-home test takes about twenty minutes at your kitchen sink and reads hardness in grains per gallon for your own tap.
A whole-home softener is $2,500 all-in, or $2,850 paired with reverse osmosis, including equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty. The XL is $2,800, or $3,150 with RO. Financing is 0%, military and first responders take $100 off, and the optional annual plan is $199 a year with a tank RO or $249 tankless.
Yes. Wells just outside the city limits pull from the same Silurian dolomite with no utility testing behind them. Our well package is $3,450 for a dual-tank system, or $3,800 with a tank RO, plus $700 for UV and $500 for sediment pre-filtration if your sample calls for it. Iron and sulfur are quoted after the free test.
Every number on this page comes from a public record. Here is where to open each one yourself.
Whole-home water softening, filtration, and reverse-osmosis drinking water — professionally installed and built to last a lifetime.
Serving Marion, Cedar Rapids & surrounding Linn County communities
Kind Water Co is a d/b/a of Zero Cap Investments LLC · 2258 Bison St, Apt B, Marion, IA 52302
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