Your water
Nobody can tell you how hard your water is from a map
Oklahoma City runs on two completely different source waters and publishes no hardness figure at all. Everything on this page comes from the city’s own documents or from USGS, and the source is printed beside every claim so you can go and read it.
Check your water by ZIP
Covers the Oklahoma City metro towns we serve.
What the documents say
Six things we can prove about Oklahoma water
Not six things we believe. Six things a city or federal document says, with the page number.
Oklahoma City runs on two completely different waters
The city's own conservation plan puts it plainly: “Oklahoma City relies on water from two sources, the North Canadian River supply and the southeastern Oklahoma supply.” Those two waters are not alike, and which one reaches your house depends on which treatment plant is feeding your side of town that day.
Source: City of Oklahoma City Water Conservation Plan, 2017, p.17
North and northwest OKC gets the hard one
The Hefner plant serves “the north and northwest portions of Oklahoma City”, and the city says its raw water “originates from the North Canadian River and is generally hard and high in organic matter.” That is the city describing its own water, not a softener company describing it.
Source: City of Oklahoma City Water Conservation Plan, 2017, p.21
South, west and east OKC gets the soft one
The Draper plant treats water piped a hundred miles from Atoka and McGee Creek in southeastern Oklahoma, and the city says it is “much softer and does not require treatment for hardness removal.” It serves “the southern, western, and eastern portion of Oklahoma City.” Same utility, same bill, very different water.
Source: City of Oklahoma City Water Conservation Plan, 2017, p.22
The city already softens some of it, with lime
Treatment at Hefner and Overholser includes “coagulant and lime addition” and recarbonation - lime softening, done at the plant. It is why the city's water quality report lists “lime and/or calcium carbonate particles from softening efforts” as a source of cloudiness. Partial softening at a treatment plant is not the same as soft water at your shower head.
Source: OKC Water Conservation Plan 2017 p.21; OKC 2021 Water Quality Report
It arrives chloraminated, not chlorinated
Hefner and Overholser both finish with chloramination. Chloramine is chlorine bound to ammonia; it lasts longer in the pipe than free chlorine, which is the point of using it, and it is also why it takes more carbon contact time to take back out again. If your water tastes of the pool, that is what you are tasting.
Source: City of Oklahoma City Water Conservation Plan, 2017, pp.21-22
On a well, the aquifer underneath you is the Garber-Wellington
USGS has measured naturally occurring arsenic in the central Oklahoma (Garber-Wellington) aquifer at up to 232 micrograms per liter against a drinking water limit of 10, along with uranium, selenium, chromium and nitrate. Public supply wells are monitored and treated for it. USGS notes that shallow domestic wells are not monitored, and that owners “may be unknowingly ingesting” what is in them. If you are on a well, a test is not optional.
Before anyone scares you
What we will not claim about your water
Fear is the standard sales tool in this trade. We would rather you knew the limits of what a water system does, including ours.
Hard water is a nuisance, not a hazard
Oklahoma City water meets federal drinking water standards. Hardness wrecks water heaters, fixtures and laundry. It is not making your family sick, and we are not going to tell you it is.
A softener does not remove arsenic
Softening resin takes out calcium and magnesium. Carbon takes out chlorine and chloramine. Neither touches arsenic, uranium or nitrate. On a well, reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink is the honest answer, and we will say so even though it is the cheaper sale.
We cannot read your street off a map
All three of the city's plants pump into one distribution system, so the water reaching a given house is a blend that moves with demand and season. Anybody who tells you which plant feeds your address is guessing. That is the whole reason we test.
Specifically, this site will never print
- a grains-per-gallon figure for Oklahoma City
- which treatment plant serves a specific address
- that a softener removes arsenic, uranium or nitrate
- a review count or star rating
Hold everybody quoting you for a water system to the same standard. Ask them where their hardness number came from.
How hard is Oklahoma City water?
Oklahoma City does not publish a hardness figure. It is not a regulated contaminant, so it is not in the annual water quality report, and the city asks residents to phone its water quality line about it. What the city does say is that it runs on two different source waters: the Hefner supply, serving the north and northwest, is “generally hard and high in organic matter”, and the Draper supply, serving the south, west and east, is “much softer and does not require treatment for hardness removal”. Every confident grains-per-gallon number online for this city traces back to a company selling softeners, and they disagree with each other.
Is hard water dangerous?
No. Hard water is a nuisance, not a health hazard. It shortens the life of water heaters, spots glassware, stiffens laundry and leaves soap on your skin. It is not making your family sick and we are not going to tell you it is. Anybody who does is selling through fear.
Is Oklahoma City tap water safe to drink?
The city treats water to meet federal drinking water standards and publishes the results every year. Meeting the legal standard is not the same as tasting good or being kind to your plumbing, and those are the problems we actually solve.
Why does my water taste like a swimming pool?
Oklahoma City finishes its water with chloramine rather than free chlorine. Chloramine is chlorine bound to ammonia; it lasts longer in the distribution pipe, which is why utilities use it, and it also takes more carbon contact time to remove than chlorine does. A whole-home carbon filter is what deals with it.
I am on a well. What should I be worried about?
Most of this metro sits over the central Oklahoma, or Garber-Wellington, aquifer. USGS has measured naturally occurring arsenic in it at up to 232 micrograms per liter against a drinking water limit of 10, along with uranium, selenium, chromium and nitrate. Public supply wells are monitored and treated for this. USGS points out that shallow domestic wells are not monitored at all, and that owners “may be unknowingly ingesting” what is in them. A test is the first step, not the last.
Will a water softener remove arsenic?
No, and we will not tell you otherwise. Softening resin removes calcium and magnesium. Carbon removes chlorine, chloramine and taste. Neither is an arsenic treatment. Reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink is what handles arsenic, uranium, nitrate and dissolved solids, which is why we treat RO as part of the answer on a well rather than an add-on at the end of a sales call.
What is the difference between softening and filtering?
Two different jobs. Softening uses ion exchange to pull out the calcium and magnesium that cause scale. Filtering uses carbon to reduce chlorine, chloramine and the compounds behind bad taste and smell. Most of our whole-home systems do both in one tank, but they are genuinely separate processes and anybody blurring them is being loose with you.
Free water test
Find out what's actually in your water
We'll test your water at your kitchen sink, show you the result, and tell you what — if anything — you need. Free, and there's no system that fits every house.
- Free on-site water test
- $2,699 installed, city water or well
- 24-hour emergency plumbing