Orange City is unusual among small Iowa systems: it pumps from two entirely different aquifers at once, roughly five hundred feet apart, and blends whatever the day requires. That is the single most useful thing to know about the water in your house here.
| Orange City at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | Orange City Municipal Water Department, PWSID IA8474097, serving 6,267 people in EPA SDWIS against a 2024 Census city estimate of 6,547 |
| Where it comes from | Shallow alluvial wells at 30 to 69 feet and deep Dakota sandstone wells at 420 to 594 feet, per the Iowa DNR Source Water Protection Tracker |
| Softened at the plant | No. The sixteen EPA SDWIS treatment records for IA8474097 cover aeration, permanganate, gravity filtration, chlorination, fluoridation and a phosphate inhibitor. None carries a softening objective |
| Published hardness | 346 mg/L as calcium carbonate at SW Well #4 on 19 October 2023 — 20.2 grains per gallon, per the Iowa DNR sample database, analyte 84. It is the only hardness result on record for the city |
The Iowa DNR well register for Orange City reads like two separate water systems sharing a distribution network. On the shallow side: Wells #7 at 30 feet from 1949, #4 and #5 at 40 and 41 feet from April 1989, and #2 and #3 at 69 feet from 1970. On the deep side: Well #6 at 594 feet from 1968, #11 at 457 feet from 1992, #10 at 454 feet from 1993, #12 at 475 feet from 2006, and the newest, SW Well #4, drilled 25 September 2023 to 420 feet.
An out-of-service relic makes the point better than anything: Orange City Well #2, drilled in 1921, is logged at 825 feet and classified “Dakota, Ordovician (above St. Peter)” — the town has been chasing water down through the section for a century.
Shallow alluvial water and deep Dakota water do not carry the same mineral signature, and the blend is not published. The one hardness figure on record — 346 mg/L, 20.2 grains — comes from a deep Dakota well.
Orange City's consumer confidence report records sodium at 27.91 parts per million at the plant sample tap on 4 April 2023, and nitrate at 0.12 parts per million against a limit of 10 — comfortably low, and a genuinely different picture from the nitrate-driven towns further east and south in the state.
The report also records gross alpha particle activity at 10.2 picocuries per litre on 26 February 2024, against a federal maximum of 15, and combined radium at 1.2 picocuries per litre against a limit of 5. Both are compliant. Both are also the kind of naturally occurring result that deep sandstone wells tend to produce, and they are worth knowing about if you are weighing reverse osmosis for the kitchen.
Orange City's sixteen federal treatment records sort into four jobs. Iron removal: aeration followed by gravity filtration, with potassium permanganate as the oxidant. Manganese removal: the same permanganate and filters, recorded separately because it is a separate regulatory objective. Disinfection: gaseous chlorination. Corrosion control: a phosphate inhibitor. Separately, the plant fluoridates using fluorosilicic acid.
Aeration and permanganate are the classic answer to iron and manganese in Iowa groundwater, and they matter here because a town pulling from both shallow alluvium and 500-foot Dakota sandstone gets different amounts of both depending on which wells are running. What the sequence does not include, at any point, is a step that removes calcium or magnesium.
For a town of 6,500, Orange City runs a remarkably large water system. The federal facility inventory lists twenty-five facilities: thirteen wells, six storage structures, a treatment plant, and a dedicated high-service pump station.
The storage alone tells a story of a system built in layers — an “old or little tower” and a “new or big tower”, both active; two clearwells, one new and in service and one old and retired; and two ground storage reservoirs, again one current and one retired. Very little has been thrown away, and quite a lot has been added.
Total dissolved solids at SW Well #4, the 2023 Dakota well, measured 380 mg/L on the same October 2023 sample that produced the 346 mg/L hardness figure. That is moderate by northwest Iowa standards — well under Le Mars, where the deep Dakota wells run to 1,022 mg/L — but it is still enough dissolved mineral that reverse osmosis makes a noticeable difference to how the drinking water tastes.
Twenty grains unsoftened is a clear softener case, and the two-aquifer blend is the reason to size it from a measurement rather than a table. 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 Sioux County homes around Orange City sit over the same two formations, and a private well hits one or the other with no aeration and permanganate stage in front of it. That means the iron and manganese the city removes arrive at the house untouched. 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.
One hardness sample in the entire public record, taken at a well that is five hundred feet deeper than half the town's other wells, is not a basis for sizing anything. 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, whichever way you decide. Book your free in-home water test.
Sioux Center · Rock Valley · Sheldon · Le Mars · Rock Rapids
The only hardness figure on public record is 346 mg/L as calcium carbonate at SW Well #4 on 19 October 2023 — 20.2 grains per gallon, per the Iowa DNR sample database, analyte 84. Because Orange City draws from both shallow alluvial wells and deep Dakota wells and does not publish the blend, a reading at your own tap is the only reliable figure.
No. The sixteen EPA SDWIS treatment records for PWSID IA8474097 cover aeration, permanganate, gravity filtration, chlorination, fluoridation and a phosphate corrosion inhibitor. None of them carries a softening objective, so the hardness in the source water reaches your tap.
Both. The Iowa DNR Source Water Protection Tracker lists shallow alluvial wells at 30 to 69 feet — Well #7 from 1949, Wells #4 and #5 from 1989, Wells #2 and #3 from 1970 — alongside deep Dakota sandstone wells at 420 to 594 feet, including Well #6 from 1968 and SW Well #4 drilled in September 2023.
Orange City's consumer confidence report records combined radium at 1.2 picocuries per litre against a federal limit of 5, and gross alpha particle activity at 10.2 picocuries per litre against a limit of 15, both sampled on 26 February 2024. Both results are within the federal limits. Naturally occurring radionuclides are common in deep sandstone wells.
A Kind Water Co softener is $2,500, or $2,850 paired with reverse osmosis. 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, 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.
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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