The City of Lake Havasu is studying the potential for a municipal water softening program. Lake Havasu City spokesman Anthony Kozlowski said the city plans to send a letter to the landfill office by August 18 requesting subsidies for water treatment.
“We are working on grant proposals to the Bureau of Reclamation to fund major projects for water, water quality and conservation,” said Doyle Wilson, Water Conservation Consultant for the City of Lake Havasu. rice field. “We have come up with a proposal to improve the water quality of the water treatment plant. That improvement is basically softening the water in the facility and making it less hard.”
Lake Havasu City ranks fifth in Arizona for hardness at 323 ppm (parts per million), with the hardest city being Bullhead City at 615 ppm.
The reason the water is so hard is that it is taken from the Colorado River, which has high concentrations of calcium and magnesium and hardness levels up to 10,000ppm.
This level of hardness not only affects the feel of the water, but also the taste of the water. As a result, many Lake Havasu residents have invested in water softeners and reverse osmosis systems to soften their water and improve its taste.
“Many residents, businesses, restaurants, etc. here have water softeners or reverse osmosis systems to clean their water for consumption,” Wilson said.
Softening the water and reducing the number of softeners and reverse osmosis systems also saves water. This is because these systems require more water than is produced to function.
“I hope people don’t need water softeners or reverse osmosis systems,” Wilson said. “If it weren’t for these water softeners and reverse osmosis systems, we wouldn’t have had to pull so much water.”
Softening the water also reduces the calcium rings in the pool, reducing the number of times the pool needs to be drained, which also saves water.
“If you improve this, you’ll save a lot of water in the long run by not having to drain the pool as often,” Wilson said.
According to Kozlowski, there are three ways to remove hardness: chemical precipitation, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis. All of these methods treat the water to lower calcium and magnesium levels, softening the water and altering its taste.
According to Wilson, this could be an overall beneficial change for the city of Lake Havasu. It will soften the water, improve its taste and reduce the amount of wasted water.
“Even one change in water quality like that could have a big impact or help the situation here,” Wilson said.
