Sheldahl is one of the smallest towns we serve, and it sits in three counties at once. The Census Bureau's 2024 estimate puts it at 312 residents: 148 on the Polk County side, 143 in Story County and 21 in Boone County. It also runs its own water. Sheldahl Water Supply pumps from two city wells, treats the water at a small plant and stores it in a 50,000-gallon elevated tank. EPA's record lists no purchase connection to any other utility, so every glass in town starts in the ground under Sheldahl.
| Sheldahl at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | Sheldahl Water Supply, PWSID IA7778039, 307 people served (EPA SDWIS). The record lists no connection buying water from another system |
| Where it comes from | Two active wells in a buried sand and gravel aquifer: Well #1, drilled in 1951 to 310 feet, and Well #2, drilled in 1988 to 314 feet (Iowa DNR Source Water Tracker). An older 330-foot well from 1918 is listed as not used |
| Softened at the plant | No. EPA's treatment record for the plant lists aeration, pressure sand filtration, sodium hypochlorite chlorination and a phosphate inhibitor. No softening step appears anywhere in it |
| Published hardness | None. The Iowa DNR Drinking Water Portal holds no hardness result for this system, so there is no sourced number to quote |
Read the treatment list in order and the plant's job is clear. Air goes in first, forced through the water. Then the water runs through pressurised sand filters, and finally it is chlorinated and dosed with a phosphate inhibitor before it climbs to the tower. Aeration followed by sand filtration is the classic way to take dissolved iron and manganese out of well water: the air turns them into fine particles, and the sand catches them. It is a sensible build for a two-well town, and it is aimed at rust stains and metallic taste.
It is not built to take out calcium and magnesium, the minerals that make water hard. So Sheldahl's water leaves the plant with whatever hardness the aquifer handed it. Nobody has put that number in the state database, and we will not borrow one from Ankeny or Ames and call it yours, because their water comes from different sources and different plants. This is a town where a free in-home test is the only way to get a hardness figure at all.
What the record does show is sodium. In 14 samples since 1990, treated and distribution alike, Sheldahl's water has measured between 83 and 97 mg/L, most recently 83 mg/L after treatment in April 2025 (Iowa DNR). There is no federal limit for sodium, and none of it comes from a softener at the plant, because there isn't one. It is still worth knowing before you add a salt-based softener at home, which adds a little more.
Sheldahl's EPA record carries one run of health-based violations, and it is public, so here it is in full. In July 2015 a sample from the distribution system measured nitrite at 2.46 mg/L, against a federal maximum contaminant level of 1 mg/L. Distribution samples then read 2.07 mg/L in November 2015, 1.6 mg/L in December and 1.4 mg/L in January 2016, and EPA logged four maximum contaminant level violations. Samples taken at the plant on the same days were lower, 0.51 mg/L in July and 0.85 mg/L in November, so the higher numbers turned up out in the pipes rather than at the plant.
By March 2016 the distribution sample read 0.13 mg/L, and EPA's record closes the episode in October 2016. Since then the portal shows one small nitrite detection, 0.13 mg/L at the plant in May 2022, and the latest results, from July 2026, were less than 0.125 mg/L at both the plant and the distribution system. Nitrate is a separate measurement: it has read 2.0 to 2.2 mg/L as N every spring since 2017, against a 10 mg/L maximum contaminant level, most recently 2.1 mg/L in April 2026.
A whole-home softener has nothing to do with any of this. Our reverse osmosis systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58 for total dissolved solids and are not certified for nitrate or nitrite reduction, so we don't claim those results for them. If either number matters to your household, the city's results and a certified lab are the right tools.
Every price is all-in: equipment, installation, taxes and warranty. Installs are done by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind.
Annual service is $199 a year for a tank-RO home and $249 for a tankless-RO home. Travel is simple: the first 50 miles are free, then $1 a mile, and we quote it before you agree. For a ballpark first, try our instant quote.
Outside town, farms and acreages across the Polk, Story and Boone lines draw their own wells, with no plant in between. If yours is on the Polk County side, Polk County Environmental Health Services offers free drinking-well water testing to private well users in the county, in conjunction with the Iowa DNR, covering coliform bacteria, E. coli, nitrate, arsenic and manganese. On the Story or Boone side, start with that county's environmental health office. Our guide to free well water testing in Iowa walks through the steps.
For hardness, iron and sulfur, our well water setup is a dual-tank system at $3,450, or $3,800 with a tank RO. A sediment filter is $500, and supplemental UV (NSF/ANSI 55 Class B) is $700 for well water that has already tested safe. We fit a tank RO on a well, never a tankless one.
We are licensed and insured. Our softeners are built from NSF/ANSI 44 certified components and our reverse osmosis systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58. Our pricing is published and all-in, the drive out from the metro is quoted before you agree to anything, and in a town with no published hardness number we would rather measure yours than guess.
We come to your kitchen sink and measure hardness, iron and total dissolved solids (TDS), then hand you the readings and a written quote at no charge. If the right answer is a softener, reverse osmosis, both or nothing, that's what you'll hear. Request your free in-home water test or get an instant quote.
Polk City · Ankeny · Ames · Johnston · All of Polk County
No. EPA's treatment record for the Sheldahl plant lists aeration, pressure sand filtration, sodium hypochlorite chlorination and a phosphate inhibitor, with no softening step. Water reaches your tap with whatever hardness the city's two wells deliver.
No figure is published. The Iowa DNR Drinking Water Portal holds no hardness result for Sheldahl Water Supply, and we won't borrow a neighbouring town's number, because Sheldahl's wells are its own. Our free in-home test measures hardness, iron and total dissolved solids at your sink.
Two city wells in a buried sand and gravel aquifer: Well #1, drilled in 1951 to 310 feet, and Well #2, drilled in 1988 to 314 feet (Iowa DNR Source Water Tracker). Sheldahl Water Supply, PWSID IA7778039, serves 307 people, and EPA's record lists no connection buying water from another system.
Distribution samples measured nitrite at 2.46 mg/L in July 2015, then 2.07, 1.6 and 1.4 mg/L through January 2016, against a 1 mg/L federal maximum contaminant level, and EPA logged four violations. EPA's record closes the episode in October 2016, and the latest results, from July 2026, were less than 0.125 mg/L.
A Kind Water Co whole-home softener with carbon filtration is $2,500 all-in, including equipment, installation, taxes and warranty, or $2,850 with reverse osmosis. Travel is free for the first 50 miles, then $1 a mile, and we quote it before you agree.
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
.webp)
