Council Bluffs is the rare Iowa city that tells you, in writing, exactly why its residents still buy softeners. The utility softens most of its water — and then deliberately mixes unsoftened water back in.
| Council Bluffs at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | Council Bluffs Water Works, PWSID IA7820080, serving 64,447 people in EPA SDWIS against a 2024 Census city estimate of 62,665 |
| Where it comes from | The utility states that “the water systems main source of water is the Missouri River” and that “the secondary source of water is the Missouri River Alluvium”, with two wells at 150 feet rated 4.5 million gallons a day each |
| Softened at the plant | Partly. The utility states that “lime is added to approximately 70% of the water to elevate the pH sufficiently to precipitate magnesium and calcium ions”, and that “this softened water is blended with un-softened water as needed to adjust the pH and hardness” |
| Published hardness | 310 to 560 mg/L as calcium carbonate at the alluvial wells, per the Iowa DNR sample database. These are raw figures taken before the plant, not what leaves it |
Most Iowa softening towns present a simple picture: the plant takes the hardness out, so you probably do not need a softener. Council Bluffs is explicit that it does not work that way here. Roughly 70% of the flow is lime softened; the rest is not; the two are recombined “as needed” to land on a target pH and hardness. That is a deliberate operating choice, and it is good practice — water softened to zero is aggressive to pipes.
But it also means the finished hardness is a moving figure set by a blend ratio that changes with demand and with source conditions, and the utility publishes no finished number. So a Council Bluffs homeowner cannot look anything up and know where they stand. They can only measure.
The federal treatment inventory for Council Bluffs Water Works lists lime softening, lime and soda ash addition, recarbonation with carbon dioxide, membrane filtration and reverse osmosis under the softening objective — an unusually complete set for a city this size — alongside chlorine dioxide, powdered activated carbon, ferric sulfate coagulation and chloramines.
The Iowa DNR sampling points show why the feeds differ. Entry point 1 is the Narrows plant, on the Missouri River plus Wells #1 and #2. Entry point 2 is the Council Point plant, on Wells #3 through #11. Sodium on 1 April 2025 was 70 mg/L at the Narrows entry and 33 mg/L at Council Point — the same city, the same day, more than double the difference.
Council Bluffs runs eleven alluvial wells between 95 and 149 feet. Well #1 dates from 1957 and Well #2 from 1990; #3 through #7 were drilled through late 2008 and early 2009, #8 in November 2017, and #9, #10 and #11 all in May 2020. Raw hardness sampled at four of them ranged from 310 mg/L at Well #11 to 560 mg/L at Well #9 — 18.1 to 32.7 grains per gallon — with dissolved solids from 540 to 720 mg/L.
A 250 mg/L spread between wells inside one wellfield is a lot. Blend that with river water and lime-softened water in shifting proportions and you have a supply whose hardness at your tap is genuinely unpredictable from published data.
Because the plant softens some of the flow, we do not assume a full softener here. We measure first, then recommend. Every price is all-in: equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty.
Annual maintenance is $199 a year for a tank-RO home and $249 for a tankless-RO home. A full diagnostic service call is $199; a known-issue trip is $99 plus the part. We offer 0% financing, and $100 off for military and first responders. Ask for the written breakdown before you schedule, or start one through our instant quote.
Rural Pottawattamie County homes draw the same Missouri River alluvium the city taps, with no lime plant and no blending in between — the full raw hardness plus whatever iron and bacteria the well carries. Our well water setup is a dual-tank system at $3,450, or $3,800 with tank RO, with UV disinfection at $700 and sediment pre-filtration at $500 when the readings call for them. We fit tank RO rather than tankless on a well, because high dissolved solids cost a tankless unit its pressure. Start with free well water testing.
We are licensed and insured, and our softeners are built from NSF/ANSI 44 certified components and our reverse osmosis systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58. Installation is handled by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule and stand behind. Pricing is published and all-in, so the figure you read here is the figure on the paperwork. Distance and site conditions are the only things that can change it, and we tell you before you agree.
If a salesperson has told you Council Bluffs water is soft because the plant softens, they have read half the utility's own page. The other half says the softened water is blended back with unsoftened water. The only way to settle it for your address is a reading at your kitchen sink, which we do free and leave with you in writing. Book your free in-home water test.
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Partly. Council Bluffs Water Works states that lime is added to approximately 70% of the water to elevate the pH sufficiently to precipitate magnesium and calcium ions, and that this softened water is blended with un-softened water as needed to adjust the pH and hardness. So some of the hardness is removed and some is deliberately put back.
The utility does not publish a finished hardness figure, and because the finished water is a blend of softened and unsoftened water in a ratio that changes with demand, no single published number would describe it. The Iowa DNR database records raw well hardness of 310 to 560 mg/L, which is 18.1 to 32.7 grains per gallon, before the plant.
Because only about 70% of the flow is lime softened and unsoftened water is blended back in on purpose. Softening water to zero hardness makes it aggressive to plumbing, so utilities commonly leave some hardness in. Whatever is left still forms scale in a water heater, just more slowly than untreated water would.
Council Bluffs Water Works states that its main source is the Missouri River and its secondary source is the Missouri River Alluvium, with two wells at a depth of 150 feet rated at 4.5 million gallons a day each. The Iowa DNR source water records list eleven alluvial wells between 95 and 149 feet, drilled between 1957 and May 2020.
A Kind Water Co softener is $2,500, or $2,850 paired with reverse osmosis, and a standalone RO system is $800 for the tank model or $900 tankless. Every figure is all-in with equipment, professional installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty. We recommend testing first here, because the plant already removes part of the hardness.
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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