Missouri Valley sits at the foot of the Loess Hills where they meet the Missouri River floodplain, and its water comes from the alluvium underneath. Six hardness samples across four wells and six years give an unusually well-documented picture for a town of 2,600.
| Missouri Valley at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | Missouri Valley Water Supply, PWSID IA4344088, serving 2,678 people in EPA SDWIS against a 2024 Census city estimate of 2,638 |
| Where it comes from | Missouri River alluvial wells between 84 and 97 feet, per the Iowa DNR Source Water Protection Tracker |
| Softened at the plant | No. No EPA SDWIS treatment record for IA4344088 carries a softening objective |
| Published hardness | 418 mg/L at the new Well #6 in June 2024; 467 and 459 mg/L at Wells #4 and #5 in August 2021; 488 and 501 mg/L at the same two wells in September 2018 — 24.4 to 29.3 grains per gallon, per the Iowa DNR sample database, analyte 84 |
Missouri Valley is one of the few Iowa towns where the state database holds repeat samples from the same wells, which lets you see the trend rather than a snapshot:
Both older wells came down by roughly 20 to 40 mg/L over three years, and the newest well came in lower still. That is a gentle downward drift, not a change of regime. Twenty-four to twenty-nine grains is hard water by any measure — the U.S. Geological Survey classes anything above 10.5 grains as very hard — and nothing in the town's treatment removes it.
The highest hardness result on record for Missouri Valley is 603 mg/L, or 35.3 grains. It came from Well #1 in August 2021, and Well #1 is logged in the Iowa DNR register as plugged. It is a real measurement of water nobody drinks.
We flag it because that is exactly the sort of figure that ends up in a third-party “hardest water in Iowa” table with no note about the well being out of service. If you have been quoted on the basis of a 35-grain Missouri Valley number, ask which well it came from.
The active wells are a mix of old and new: Well #1 (the active one, a different tag from the plugged 1964 well) at 90 feet from 1954, Well #4 at 97 feet drilled in August 1988, Well #5 at 89 feet from February 2000, and Well #6 at 89 feet drilled on 8 May 2024. Several older wells — the 1918 South well, the 1930 West well, a 1926 well and a 1958 Well #3 — are plugged or out of use.
Sodium after treatment is modest, running 23 to 33.1 mg/L at the sample tap on wells 1, 4 and 5, and 17.51 mg/L at the new Well #6. As in Rock Valley, that is the profile of water that is mineral-heavy but not salty.
Missouri Valley's seventeen federal treatment records contain a detail worth pointing out: chlorination appears twice, under two different objectives. Once under disinfection, which is what everyone expects, and once under iron removal.
That is a real and common technique. Chlorine oxidises dissolved ferrous iron into a solid ferric form that a filter can catch, so the same chemical does duty as both a disinfectant and an iron treatment. Missouri Valley pairs it with forced-draft aeration and filtration for iron, and with potassium permanganate and filtration for manganese, and fluoridates separately.
There is no corrosion-inhibitor record and no softening record. The plant is built to take out iron and manganese and to disinfect. Calcium and magnesium pass through it untouched, which is why the well figures in the table above are a fair guide to what arrives at your meter.
The federal facility inventory for Missouri Valley lists two treatment plants. Plant #1 is recorded as inactive; Plant #2 is the one running. Alongside them sit six wells, an elevated storage tank at 0.75 million gallons, a ground storage tank at 0.3 million, and a 0.217 million gallon clearwell.
You can read the changeover in the sampling points too. One entry point is logged as “wells 1, 4 and 5 after treatment” and marked inactive; the current one reads “wells 1, 4, 5 and 6 after treatment”, picking up the well drilled in May 2024. A third, older point covering only wells 1 and 4 is also retired.
That is a town that has rebuilt its water plant and extended its wellfield within living memory — and the hardness figures barely moved. Well #6, the newest, still came in at 418 mg/L. Total dissolved solids at that same well measured 450 mg/L on 20 June 2024. New plant, new well, same mineral load, because the minerals are in the aquifer rather than in the plumbing.
Mid-to-high twenties in grains, unsoftened, on shallow alluvial wells. 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.
Harrison County covers a lot of ground between the Loess Hills and the river, and a private well out there taps the same alluvium the town does, without treatment in front of it. That usually means iron and manganese on top of the hardness. 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.
Your town's public record spans six years and four wells, and it is consistent: hard water, no softening. What it cannot tell you is what your own plumbing has been doing with that water. We come to you, measure hardness, iron and dissolved solids at your own kitchen sink, and leave you the readings and a written quote at no charge. Book your free in-home water test.
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The Iowa DNR sample database records 418 mg/L as calcium carbonate at Well #6 in June 2024, 467 and 459 mg/L at Wells #4 and #5 in August 2021, and 488 and 501 mg/L at those same wells in September 2018 — 24.4 to 29.3 grains per gallon. Missouri Valley does not soften, so that hardness reaches your tap.
No. The 603 mg/L figure, which is 35.3 grains, was measured at Well #1 in August 2021, and the Iowa DNR register lists that well as plugged. It is a real measurement of water that is no longer in service. The active wells read 418 to 501 mg/L, or 24.4 to 29.3 grains.
No. No EPA SDWIS treatment record for PWSID IA4344088 carries a softening objective. Hardness is not a regulated contaminant in the United States, so no utility is obliged to remove it, and most small Iowa systems do not.
Slightly. Well #4 measured 488 mg/L in September 2018 and 467 mg/L in August 2021; Well #5 measured 501 mg/L then 459 mg/L over the same period; and Well #6, drilled in May 2024, came in at 418 mg/L. That is a gentle downward drift within the same hard-water range, not a change in the underlying supply.
A Kind Water Co softener is $2,500, or $2,850 paired with reverse osmosis. The XL softener is $2,800, or $3,150 with RO. Every figure is all-in with equipment, professional installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty, with 0% financing and $100 off for military and first responders.
Every number on this page comes from a public record. Here is where to open each one yourself.
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