Huxley’s water plant does two softening jobs at once. EPA SDWIS lists both ion exchange and reverse osmosis under the softening objective at the city’s active treatment plant, and of the Story County systems we checked in the federal record, Huxley is the only one that pairs the two. There is good reason for it: the city’s own wells come up at 326 to 359 mg/L of hardness before treatment, roughly 19 to 21 grains per gallon. The figure that has moved most in recent years, though, is sodium. Treated water from the plant read 126 to 149 mg/L in 2021–23 and 19.3 mg/L on 23 July 2026.
| Huxley at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | Huxley Waterworks Dept, PWSID IA8538066, 4,244 people served (EPA SDWIS); 2024 Census city estimate 4,737 |
| Where it comes from | The city’s own alluvial wells, 74 to 98 feet deep. A Cambrian-Ordovician well about 2,600 feet deep is plugged (Iowa DNR Source Water Tracker) |
| Softened at the plant | Yes. Treatment Plant #2 lists ion exchange, reverse osmosis and caustic soda pH adjustment under the softening objective, plus permanganate with pressure filtration (EPA SDWIS) |
| Published hardness | No finished-water figure. Raw well water read 326 to 359 mg/L at Wells #5 and #6 in 2021 and 352 mg/L at Well #7 on 20 September 2022 (Iowa DNR Drinking Water Portal) |
Ion exchange and reverse osmosis soften water in different ways. Ion exchange swaps the calcium and magnesium in the water for sodium, which is why towns that soften this way alone tend to show a high sodium number. Reverse osmosis pushes water through a membrane that holds back most dissolved minerals, sodium among them. Huxley’s Treatment Plant #2 lists both, with caustic soda to adjust pH and a permanganate and pressure-filtration step filed under manganese removal (EPA SDWIS, PWSID IA8538066).
What the record does not show is how the plant splits its flow between the two processes, or when the reverse osmosis step came online. That is why nobody publishes the hardness at a Huxley tap. The Iowa DNR sample database holds only raw-well hardness for this system: 326 to 359 mg/L at Wells #5 and #6 across 2021, and 352 mg/L at Well #7 on 20 September 2022. On the U.S. Geological Survey scale anything above 180 mg/L counts as very hard, so the source water sits deep in that band before the plant touches it. A raw-well figure is not what comes out of the tap in a town that softens, and we would not quote it to you as if it were.
Finished-water sodium is where Huxley’s record gets interesting. Iowa DNR samples of treated water ran 126 to 149 mg/L between 2021 and 2023. Since 2024 they have run 15 to 19 mg/L, and the latest, taken from Wells 5, 6 and 7 after treatment on 23 July 2026, read 19.3 mg/L. The public record does not say what changed at the plant, and we will not guess.
For scale, EPA’s guidance for people on a very low sodium diet of 500 mg a day is that drinking water not exceed 20 mg/L, with a range of 30 to 60 mg/L suggested for taste (EPA 822-R-03-006). Sodium has no federal limit. Two Story County neighbours whose own plants soften by ion exchange read far higher on their latest treated-water samples: Gilbert 87 mg/L on 20 May 2026, and Slater 142 mg/L on 9 December 2025. Ames, which lime-softens, reported 32 mg/L in its single 2024 entry-point sample (City of Ames 2025 water quality report).
If someone in your house watches sodium closely, reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink lowers total dissolved solids, sodium included, in the water you drink and cook with. Whether that is worth doing at 19.3 mg/L is a household decision, and the tap test gives you the number to decide with.
Because Huxley’s finished hardness is not published, the useful number is the one at your own tap. Our free in-home test measures hardness, iron and total dissolved solids there, and you keep the readings. If the plant has taken your water well down, the better spend may be reverse osmosis at the sink. If the reading is higher than you would like, or you are seeing crust on the kettle element and film on shower glass, a softener sized to that number is the straightforward fix. Our signs you need a softener guide is a fair checklist either way.
Iron is on the test for a practical reason. It can turn up at a tap even on treated water, and it changes how a softener has to be set up if you do fit one.
Huxley’s population rose from 4,245 in the 2020 Census base to an estimated 4,737 in 2024, about 11.6% in four years (U.S. Census Bureau estimate). That is close to 500 more residents on the I-35 corridor between Ames and Ankeny, and plenty of them arrived from towns whose water is treated differently. Ames, just up the road, lime-softens to a monthly average of 153 mg/L, or 8.94 grains, in August 2026 (City of Ames). Huxley gets there by a different route and does not publish the result.
New house or old, the water heater scales at whatever hardness reaches it, and it is easier to keep one clean than to descale it later. Our note on what limescale does to appliances covers the mechanics.
EPA SDWIS lists no violations of any kind for the Huxley system. The highest treated-water nitrate reading on the Iowa DNR portal since 2021 is 0.2 mg/L as nitrogen, beside a federal maximum of 10 mg/L. It is the sort of detail that rarely reaches a sales page, and it means the conversation in a Huxley kitchen is usually about hardness, sodium and taste.
Every price is all-in: equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty.
Maintenance is $199 a year for a tank-RO home and $249 for a tankless-RO home. A diagnostic service call is $199, or $99 for a known-issue trip plus the part. Financing is 0%, with $100 off for military and first responders. Travel is free for the first 50 miles and $1 a mile after that, and we quote it before we book. Start with an instant quote or ask for a written quote.
Beyond the city mains, rural Story County homes draw private wells that no plant softens. Story County offers eligible residents free well testing for coliform bacteria, nitrate, arsenic and manganese, plus grants of up to $1,000 toward a well renovation and up to $500 toward plugging an old well. The money opens each July 1 and runs until it is gone. The county test and our in-home test measure different things, so we suggest both. Our well water system is a dual-tank build at $3,450, or $3,800 with tank RO; UV at $700 and sediment pre-filtration at $500 are priced on their own. We fit tank RO, never tankless, on a well, because high dissolved solids cost a tankless unit its pressure. Read more on free well water testing in Iowa.
Kind Water Co is licensed and insured. Our softeners are built from NSF/ANSI 44 certified components, and our reverse osmosis systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58. Licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind do the installation, and we install and repair across the Ames area and the Des Moines metro. Our prices are published and all-in. Where a town publishes no finished number, as Huxley does not, we would rather measure yours than borrow a neighbour’s.
We come to you, measure hardness, iron and total dissolved solids at your tap, and leave you the readings and a written quote at no charge, whichever way you decide. Book your free in-home water test or run an instant quote first.
Ames · Ankeny · Polk City · Des Moines · Story County
No finished-water hardness figure is published for Huxley. The only hardness on the Iowa DNR portal is raw well water: 326 to 359 mg/L at Wells #5 and #6 in 2021, and 352 mg/L at Well #7 on 20 September 2022, roughly 19 to 21 grains per gallon. The city softens that water at its plant, so what reaches your tap is lower, and a free in-home test gives you your own number.
Yes. EPA SDWIS lists ion exchange, reverse osmosis and caustic soda pH adjustment under the softening objective at Huxley’s Treatment Plant #2 (PWSID IA8538066), along with permanganate and pressure filtration. The record does not say how the flow is split between the two softening processes.
The latest Iowa DNR sample of treated water, taken on 23 July 2026, read 19.3 mg/L. Samples ran 126 to 149 mg/L between 2021 and 2023 and 15 to 19 mg/L since 2024. Sodium has no federal limit; EPA’s guidance for people on a very low sodium diet is 20 mg/L.
It depends on what reaches your tap, and no one publishes that number for Huxley. If your in-home test reads low, reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink may be the better spend. If it reads higher, or you are seeing scale and film, a softener sized to the reading is the fix. We show you the number either way.
Our standard system of softener, carbon filtration and reverse osmosis is $2,850, all-in with equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty. Without RO it is $2,500, a softener alone is $1,900, and standalone reverse osmosis is $800 for a tank model or $900 tankless. Travel is free for the first 50 miles, then $1 a mile, quoted before we book.
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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