Colona is one city with two public water systems. The City of Colona runs Colona East (PWSID IL0730400) and Colona West (PWSID IL0730550). Both pump their own groundwater, neither buys water from another utility, and neither softens it. Lab results on Illinois EPA’s Drinking Water Watch put finished water from all three city plants at 230 to 240 mg/L of hardness in 2024, or 13.5 to 14.0 grains per gallon, while the city’s own water page prints a higher number. A softener gets set from the hardness at your own kitchen sink, so that is where we start.
Whichever Colona system you are on, East or West, we install water softeners, whole-home carbon filters and reverse osmosis systems for drinking water. Softeners, filters and RO units already in place get repaired and maintained too, including brands we did not sell when parts are obtainable, and Henry County acreages beyond the city water mains can get a complete well system. Installs go to licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind. Founded in 2021, family-owned and based in Marion, Kind Water Co is licensed and insured.
It starts at your kitchen sink with a free in-home water test that reads hardness, iron and total dissolved solids and nothing else; a certified laboratory handles bacteria, nitrate, arsenic, lead and PFAS. Colona sits past the first 50 miles from Marion, so travel is charged at $1 a mile beyond that point, and that amount is written into your quote before you commit. Book the free in-home water test, or price a system first with the instant quote.
| Colona at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | The City of Colona, through two systems: Colona East (PWSID IL0730400), serving 2,501 people through 993 connections, and Colona West (PWSID IL0730550), serving 2,640 people through 1,056 connections, per EPA SDWIS. Census Vintage 2024 population: 4,960 |
| Where it comes from | City groundwater only: four shallow-bedrock wells listed as active, 445 to 492 feet deep, per the Illinois EPA source water fact sheets. Neither system records a water purchase |
| Softened at the plant? | No. EPA SDWIS treatment records list aeration, gaseous chlorination and fluoridation for the two systems, with no softening objective |
| Published hardness | 230 to 240 mg/L (13.5 to 14.0 gpg). Finished-water lab results from April 2 and October 1, 2024, on Illinois EPA’s Drinking Water Watch. The city’s water page lists 350, a figure with no date that names neither system |
Illinois EPA’s source water fact sheets describe all of Colona’s city water as groundwater from shallow bedrock. Colona East has three wells on record, Wells 1, 2 and 3, drilled to 492, 445 and 470 feet. Colona West has its Well 1, at 455 feet, and a Well 2 listed as abandoned. Neither system shows a water purchase on Drinking Water Watch. The only interconnections on record are emergency links between the two: Colona East’s fact sheet lists them with Colona West at two locations.
Treatment is brief. EPA SDWIS lists aeration at the East Wells 1-2 plant and at the West plant, gaseous chlorination and fluoridation at all three plants, and nothing under a softening objective. SDWIS also names Green Rock as the community Colona West serves; Green Rock and Colona merged in 1997 and kept the Colona name. The city does not publish an exact boundary between the East and West systems, and for softener sizing that matters less than you might expect, because the three plants tested within 10 mg/L of each other in 2024.
The City of Colona’s water page gives the hardness as 350, with the unit printed as parts per milliliter, and says to divide by 17.1 for grains per gallon. That is the conversion for milligrams per liter, so the page evidently means 350 mg/L, or 20.5 grains per gallon. It carries no date and does not say which of the two systems it describes.
The lab results on Drinking Water Watch are dated and tied to a plant: 230 mg/L at the East Wells 1-2 plant and 240 mg/L at the East Well 3 plant on April 2, 2024, and 230 mg/L at Colona West on October 1, 2024. Results from 2021 were 230 to 250 mg/L at Colona East and 240 mg/L at Colona West. Even samples of the untreated water from the city’s wells, taken from 2019 to 2024, topped out at 257 mg/L, well below 350. The documented range for finished water from 2021 to 2024, 230 to 250 mg/L or 13.5 to 14.6 grains per gallon, is a starting point; the reading at your own tap is what the softener is programmed from.
The City of Colona says chloramines are its normal disinfectant. Its notice about a chlorine burnout from July 13 to 31 described a temporary change from chloramines to free chlorine. EPA SDWIS codes the treatment as gaseous chlorination, and the 2025 water quality reports label the residual as chlorine: 1.9 ppm at Colona East and 1.7 ppm at Colona West, against a maximum residual disinfectant level of 4.
For equipment, plan around the city’s statement. Standard granular carbon is slow against chloramine, and catalytic carbon is the media built for it. Our whole-home softener package includes carbon filtration, and upgrading that carbon to catalytic adds $150, or $225 on an XL system. We can talk through whether it is worth it for your house at the free test.
Since 2002, Illinois EPA’s Drinking Water Watch lists one violation across the two systems: a consumer confidence report violation at Colona West in July 2007, a reporting violation that reached compliance on July 20, 2007. Colona East’s last violations were monitoring violations in 2001. The last maximum contaminant level violations on either record were coliform, at Colona East in 1982 and 1984 and at Colona West in July 1986.
All prices are all-in: equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty.
The annual service plan is $199 a year, or $249 a year with tankless RO. A diagnostic service call is $199, and a known-issue trip is $99 plus the part. The warranty covers parts for life, media for 5 years and labor for 1 year. Financing is available at 0% through a third-party lender with approved credit, and military and first responders get $100 off. More on water softeners, reverse osmosis drinking water, reverse osmosis in the Quad Cities and water softener repair.
A well on a Henry County acreage is not part of Colona East or Colona West, so none of the lab results above describe its water, and what gets tested is the owner’s call. The Henry & Stark County Health Department issues permits for new wells and inspects newly constructed or repaired wells. Its water sampling page says local health departments can no longer submit annual samples to the Illinois Department of Public Health lab, and that repeat or annual well water testing goes to a commercial laboratory. Bacteria and nitrate need a certified lab, since our free in-home test reads only hardness, iron and total dissolved solids.
Once a certified lab has cleared the well for bacteria, we build around it: the well dual-tank system, sediment filtration, and UV, a supplemental NSF/ANSI 55 Class B unit for water that has already tested safe; it is never the fix for a contaminated well. Treatment for iron or sulfur is priced after the free test. See well water treatment.
Whether your tap is on Colona East or Colona West, the 2024 lab results say about 13.5 to 14 grains and the city’s page says 20.5. The reading at your own sink settles it. Book the free in-home water test, or call or text 319-319-6566. At your tap we read hardness, iron and total dissolved solids, talk through whether catalytic carbon is worth adding on water the city says it disinfects with chloramines, and say so if the result shows no need for a softener. To price it before anyone visits, use the instant quote.
Colona is in Henry County. The nearest towns we serve are across the county line in Rock Island County.
Quad Cities · Rock Island County · Carbon Cliff · East Moline · Silvis · Coal Valley
No. The City of Colona runs two water systems, Colona East and Colona West, and EPA SDWIS treatment records for both list aeration, gaseous chlorination and fluoridation, with no softening objective. Both pump their own groundwater from shallow-bedrock wells 445 to 492 feet deep, and neither buys water from another utility. The only connections on record are emergency interconnections between the East and West systems.
Lab results posted on Illinois EPA’s Drinking Water Watch put finished water from Colona’s three city plants at 230 to 240 mg/L in 2024, which is 13.5 to 14.0 grains per gallon. The city’s water page lists 350, or 20.5 grains, but that figure has no date and names neither system. The free in-home test measures the hardness at your own kitchen sink, and that reading is what a softener is set from.
Two. The City of Colona operates Colona East, PWSID IL0730400, serving 2,501 people, and Colona West, PWSID IL0730550, serving 2,640. EPA SDWIS names Green Rock as the community Colona West serves; Green Rock and Colona merged in 1997 and kept the Colona name. Each system has its own wells, lab results and violation record, and the city does not publish an exact boundary between them.
A water softener with whole-home carbon filtration is $2,500 all-in, covering equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty. With reverse osmosis added it is $2,850, and a standalone reverse osmosis system costs $800 with a tank, $900 tankless. Because the city says it uses chloramines, the catalytic carbon upgrade, $150 more, is worth asking about. Colona is past the first 50 miles from Marion, so travel at $1 a mile beyond that point is shown on the quote before you agree.
Yes, on either Colona system, including softeners, filters and reverse osmosis units from brands we did not sell, when parts are obtainable. A softener that is no longer keeping up with the 230 to 240 mg/L hardness in Illinois EPA’s 2024 lab results starts with a $199 diagnostic service call; if the fault is already known, the visit is $99 plus the part. When replacement is the better value, installation goes to licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind.
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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