West Des Moines is not on one water supply. It is on two. Most of the city drinks water treated at the A.C. Ward plant from local wells; households in the north-west and south-east corners receive purchased Des Moines Water Works river water instead. Same city limits, two different chemistries, and the utility maps it itself.
| West Des Moines at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | West Des Moines Water Works, PWSID IA7785007, 73,959 people served (EPA SDWIS). WDMWW operates the A.C. Ward Municipal Water Treatment Plant and is a founding member of Central Iowa Water Works |
| Where it comes from | Nineteen shallow wells 40 to 50 feet deep in the Raccoon River alluvial aquifer, four Jordan aquifer wells at roughly 2,500 feet, and purchased DMWW water drawn from the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers |
| Softened at the plant | Yes. Lime and soda ash softening in solid contact units at A.C. Ward, with ferric chloride to settle out calcium and magnesium. WDMWW states the process cuts hardness by 60 percent |
| Published hardness | Raw water 370 mg/L as calcium carbonate, described by the utility as “very hard,” finished water 150 mg/L, which WDMWW itself calls “in the mid-range for hard” on the EPA scale (Service Line newsletter, Spring 2014) |
Utilities rarely publish hardness at all, because it is unregulated and therefore not required in a Consumer Confidence Report. West Des Moines went further than almost anyone: it printed the before number, the after number, and the plain-English verdict on both. Raw water at 370 mg/L is “considered very hard.” After lime and soda ash softening it lands at 150 mg/L, “which is considered to be in the mid-range for hard.”
Read that twice, because it settles an argument that runs through this whole metro. The plant removed 60 percent of the hardness and the water is still hard. That is not a criticism of the plant — 60 percent is a lot of calcium to take out of a municipal supply every day. It is simply what lime softening does. A home softener starts from 150 mg/L instead of 370, which means less salt, longer runs between regenerations and a smaller unit than the same house would need in Cedar Rapids. It does not mean nothing left to do. Our note on what limescale does to appliances covers where that last 150 mg/L shows up.
WDMWW's own water quality report maps customers “in the NW and SE portion of the city” as receiving purchased Des Moines Water Works water while the rest receive A.C. Ward water, with roughly 4,500 customers on DMWW alone. The difference is not cosmetic. In the same report, nitrate at A.C. Ward measured 0.92 ppm, against 8.1 and 8.14 ppm at the DMWW plants. Local alluvial and Jordan groundwater simply does not carry the Raccoon River's spring nitrate load.
So a neighbour three miles away may be describing a genuinely different water than yours, and both of you are right. If you are in a corner of the city fed by Des Moines Water Works, the nitrate cycle that shut down metro lawn watering in June 2025 and June 2026 applies to your tap and reverse osmosis is worth a serious look. If you are on A.C. Ward water, it largely does not. A test at your own sink is the only way to know which conversation you are in.
Central Iowa Water Works lists A.C. Ward at 10 million gallons a day and describes its treatment as iron removal, softening, filtration and disinfection. The softening step uses lime and soda ash in solid contact units, with ferric chloride added to help calcium and magnesium settle; the lime residuals are pumped away to a water recovery facility. The iron removal step is worth noting for a different reason — shallow alluvial wells at 40 to 50 feet are exactly the kind of source that carries iron, and whatever slips past a plant filter ends up in your softener resin, quietly costing you capacity.
There is one data point we will not publish as fact. EPA SDWIS lists the CIWW (WDMWW) producer record IA7785009 with a groundwater primary source, while the Iowa DNR source-water tracker lists it as purchased surface water. Two state-level records disagree. Rather than pick one, we will say plainly that it is unresolved and test your tap.
Which system suits you here depends more than usual on which supply you are on. Every price is all-in: equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty.
Annual maintenance runs $199 a year for a tank-RO home and $249 a year for a tankless-RO home. A full diagnostic service call is $199; a known-issue trip is $99 plus the part. Financing is 0%, and military and first responders take $100 off. Ask for the written breakdown up front, or start one from our instant quote.
West of the city the subdivisions thin out into private wells drawing the same alluvial sand and gravel the A.C. Ward field taps, without the plant in between. Iron, hardness, nitrate and bacteria are all yours to manage there. Our well water system is a dual-tank build at $3,450, or $3,800 with tank RO, plus UV disinfection at $700 and sediment pre-filtration at $500 where the test calls for them. We fit tank RO rather than tankless on a well, because high dissolved solids cost a tankless unit its pressure.
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. Licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule and stand behind do the installing. Pricing is published, all-in and the same for every house, so nothing new appears at the door.
In a city running two supplies, the published number for one of them may have nothing to do with your house. We come to you, measure hardness, iron, nitrate and the rest at your kitchen sink, and give you the readings and a written quote before you decide anything. It is free either way. Book your free in-home water test.
Des Moines · Waukee · Urbandale · Grimes · Indianola
West Des Moines Water Works has published both numbers: raw water at 370 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which it calls “very hard,” softening down to 150 mg/L, which the utility describes as “in the mid-range for hard” on the EPA scale. That is a 60 percent reduction that still leaves hard water at the tap.
Because it may be. WDMWW's water quality report maps customers in the north-west and south-east portions of the city as receiving purchased Des Moines Water Works water, roughly 4,500 customers, while the rest receive A.C. Ward plant water. Nitrate measured 0.92 ppm at A.C. Ward against 8.1 and 8.14 ppm at the DMWW plants.
Often yes, just a smaller one. Finished water at 150 mg/L is roughly 8.8 grains per gallon, which still leaves scale on glass, fixtures and the inside of a water heater. Starting from 150 rather than 370 means less salt and longer runs between regenerations. Whether it is worth it for your house is what the free test answers.
From nineteen shallow wells 40 to 50 feet deep in the Raccoon River alluvial aquifer, four Jordan aquifer wells at about 2,500 feet, and purchased Des Moines Water Works water drawn from the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers. The A.C. Ward Municipal Water Treatment Plant handles the local sources at 10 million gallons per day.
A Kind Water Co softener is $2,500 all-in, covering equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty. Paired with reverse osmosis it is $2,850, and the XL build is $2,800, or $3,150 with RO. Softeners use NSF/ANSI 44 certified components and RO systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58. Financing is 0%, with $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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