Carlisle still makes its own water, and the plant that makes it has no softening step. Four shallow alluvial wells, 30 to 51 feet deep, feed a treatment train that aerates the water, runs it through pressure filters, and adds chlorine and fluoride. That is the complete list in the federal record. Whatever hardness those wells carry is what comes out of a Carlisle tap, and nobody — not the city, not the state — has put a hardness number on record.
| Carlisle at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | Carlisle Water Supply, PWSID IA9113071, 4,170 people served (EPA SDWIS). The Census Bureau's 2024 estimate puts the city at 4,381 people |
| Where it comes from | Four active alluvial wells, #2, #4, #5 and #6, drilled 30 to 51 feet into sand and gravel (Iowa DNR Source Water Tracker) |
| Softened at the plant | No. SDWIS lists aeration, pressure filtration through sand and anthracite, hypochlorite disinfection and fluoridation. No softening objective appears anywhere in the record |
| Published hardness | None. The Iowa DNR Drinking Water Portal returns “No data found” for hardness on this system |
| Sodium | 13.4 mg/L, a single routine sample of treated water from wells 2, 4, 5 and 6, taken 05/06/2025 |
EPA's SDWIS files every treatment step under an objective and a process. Carlisle's plant lists exactly four: aeration, pressure filtration through sand and anthracite, hypochlorite (chlorine) disinfection, and fluoridation. Aeration ahead of a pressure filter is the classic layout for shallow groundwater with dissolved iron in it — air turns the iron into particles, and the filter bed catches them before the water reaches the mains.
What the list leaves out matters more to a homeowner. There is no lime, no ion exchange and no reverse osmosis: nothing that takes calcium and magnesium out. Of the thirty or so Central Iowa systems we checked against the federal record, only nine do not soften at all, and Carlisle is one of them, alongside places like Mitchellville, Van Meter and Elkhart. Its neighbours on the regional system are in a different position entirely: Norwalk, for one, buys water that has already been softened at the Des Moines plants.
The Iowa DNR Drinking Water Portal is where the state keeps hardness results for public water systems, and for Carlisle Water Supply it returns “No data found”. The city does not publish a figure either. We looked, and there is nothing to quote.
That does not mean the water is soft. Where unsoftened alluvial groundwater has been sampled elsewhere around the metro, it has come back hard: Adel's alluvial wells measured 350 to 440 mg/L in raw samples between 2019 and 2024, and Bondurant's new Well #7 tested 410 mg/L in a single raw sample on 06/17/2026. Those are different well fields in different towns, and we will not print either as Carlisle's number. They are the reason we expect to find hardness here, and the reason we test before we quote.
So the free in-home test is not a sales formality in Carlisle; it is the only hardness reading your house is ever likely to get. We measure it at your kitchen sink, in grains per gallon, along with iron and TDS, and size a softener from that figure rather than a guess. Our Iowa water hardness by city guide shows how rare a published number is statewide.
The one mineral result on record for Carlisle is sodium: 13.4 mg/L, from a routine sample of treated water drawn from wells 2, 4, 5 and 6 on 05/06/2025. It is one sample, and it is low. That fits a plant that does not soften. Towns that soften by ion exchange at the plant can read far higher — Dallas Center, which does, has measured 144 to 235 mg/L in 2025 and 2026.
A home softener works on the same exchange principle, trading hardness for a small amount of sodium, and the harder the water, the more it trades. That is one reason many families pair a whole-home softener with a reverse osmosis tap at the kitchen sink for drinking and cooking water. For the record, the highest finished nitrate result for Carlisle in the DNR portal since 2021 is 0.5 mg/L as N, against a 10 mg/L maximum contaminant level; our free test does not measure nitrate, which takes a certified lab.
A plant built around aeration and pressure filtration exists because the wells carry iron. Most of it is caught before the water leaves the plant, but what slips through, or what a filter bed releases late in its run, ends up in your fixtures and in any softener downstream. Iron coats softener resin and quietly shrinks its capacity, so a unit sized on hardness alone can behave like a smaller one. That is why the Carlisle test covers iron in the same visit, and why we size with both readings in hand. Our guide to orange staining shows what iron looks like around a house.
A Carlisle home is one of the clearer softener cases in the metro, and the list below starts there. Every price is all-in: equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty.
Maintenance plans run $199 a year with a tank RO and $249 with a tankless RO. We offer 0% financing and $100 off for military and first responders. The first 50 miles of travel are free and each mile after that is $1, quoted to you before you book. For a figure tonight, try the instant quote.
Outside the city's mains, rural homes draw private wells, and none of the plant's aeration or filtering happens before that water reaches the house. Warren County runs a well program that tests private wells for arsenic, E. coli, total coliform, nitrates and manganese at no charge to the homeowner. A new well permit there is $100 plus a $25 DNR fee, and the county reimburses up to $500 toward plugging an old well, for materials only.
Our free test is narrower than the county's: hardness, iron and TDS. The two fit together, and we build a well system around both sets of results. Our well water system is a dual-tank build at $3,450, or $3,800 with tank RO. Sediment pre-filtration is $500 and UV is $700, added when the readings point that way. On a well we fit tank RO rather than tankless, because high dissolved solids cost a tankless unit its pressure. See free well water testing in Iowa for more.
We are licensed and insured. Our softeners are built from NSF/ANSI 44 certified components and our reverse osmosis systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58. Every install is done by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule and stand behind. Our prices are published and identical for every household, and in a town with no number on record we would rather measure your water than borrow a neighbour's.
Carlisle's plant does not soften and nobody publishes a hardness figure, so the reading from your own kitchen tap is the one that counts. We come to you, test hardness, iron and TDS, and leave the numbers and a written quote with you, free, whatever you decide. Book your free in-home water test.
Norwalk · Indianola · Altoona · Des Moines · Polk County
No. EPA SDWIS lists four treatment processes at Carlisle's plant: aeration, pressure filtration through sand and anthracite, hypochlorite disinfection and fluoridation. None of them is softening. The city draws from four shallow alluvial wells, 30 to 51 feet deep, so the hardness in those wells is the hardness at your tap.
No figure is on record. The Iowa DNR Drinking Water Portal returns no hardness data for Carlisle Water Supply, and the city does not publish one. Because the plant does not soften, the only reliable number is a reading from your own kitchen tap, which our free in-home test provides in grains per gallon.
Carlisle Water Supply, PWSID IA9113071, pumps its own groundwater from four active alluvial wells, numbers 2, 4, 5 and 6, drilled 30 to 51 feet into sand and gravel. It serves 4,170 people according to EPA SDWIS. Unlike neighbouring Norwalk, it does not buy its water from the regional system.
13.4 mg/L, from a single routine sample of treated water from wells 2, 4, 5 and 6 taken on 05/06/2025. That is low, which fits a plant with no softening step. A home softener adds a small amount of sodium as it removes hardness, which is one reason many families add a reverse osmosis tap for drinking water.
A Kind Water Co softener with carbon filtration is $2,500 all-in, including equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty, or $2,850 with reverse osmosis. A resin-only softener is $1,900 and the XL system with RO is $3,150. Financing is 0%, with $100 off for military and first responders, and travel is free for the first 50 miles.
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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