Corrosion - If your water softener uses salt or potassium, your galvanized steel pipes are suffering. Ask homeowners who have used water softeners for many years and are experiencing burst pipes and slab leaks, salt and potassium are corrosive. Over a period of time water treated with salt and potassium based softeners will corrode iron pipes or exposed steel surfaces, reducing the life of your pipes. Many people with galvanized pipes find that salt softened water does prevent scale build-up, but the trade-off is the salt also corrodes their pipes. Not only your pipes will suffer, appliances definitely take a beating from water high in salt. You may see no scale buildup, and you probably won’t see the salt corrosion either, until your appliance needs to be replaced—prematurely.

Lead - Water softeners also increase the possibility that lead will leach from pipes and fittings into your water. Even if you have new pipes, did you know that brass fittings can, by law, contain as much as 8% lead by weight? So even if your pipes are new, you could still be getting lead from your fixtures and from lead solder. The use of lead solder with copper pipes is still widespread. Experts consider this lead solder as the major cause of lead contamination of household water in U.S. homes today.

Environment – There are many municipalities across the country that have begun to address the fact that high levels of sodium AND high levels of chloride adversely affect the environment. Don’t be part of the problem…We have the Solution!

WATER SOFTENERS ISSUES
There is more to water softeners than just soft water. Water softeners reduce the “hardness” of the water, which can have several benefits for consumers: smaller amounts of soap and detergents (non-synthetic) are necessary for laundry and cleaning processes; reduced staining, spotting, scaling; bathing and showering feelings; increased fabric life; and energy saving in water heating due to less scaling.

How does a water softener work?
A typical water softener softens water by ion exchange, which involves the exchange of the hardness minerals, chiefly calcium and magnesium, for sodium or potassium minerals.

The exchange takes place by passing water containing hardness minerals over ion exchange resins in a tank. As the calcium and magnesium contact the resin in their travel through the resin tank, they displace sodium or potassium ions. The displaced sodium or potassium ions pass downward through the resin “bed” and out the softener drain; thus, the softener delivers “soft” water.

The Problem
The discharge of salt brines from the regeneration of water softeners into the wastewater collection system has a negative impact on recycled water and wastewater effluent. Higher salinity increases the treatment costs and reduces the potential for reuse of wastewater for non-potable irrigation and industrial purposes. It can also impairs a wastewater treatment agency’s ability to comply with discharge standards for total dissolved solids (TDS) which is a measure of the total concentration of dissolved minerals in water, including concentrations such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, and anions such as chloride, sulfate, and many others.

A typical wastewater treatment facility removes very little of these mineral concentrations from the waste stream and are passed on to the environment.

Sodium really has no redeeming value in the environment outside of saltwater or brackish water ecosystems. It has been declared as the biggest contaminate affecting water supplies in California, the nation and the world. Water with salinity levels above 1,000 mg/l is of questionable use for irrigation and industrial customers. As salinity increases, laundry detergents work less efficiently, plumbing fixtures and home appliances wear out faster and industry incurs higher treatment costs for boilers, cooling towers and manufacturing processes, and farmers experience reduced crop yields.

What is chloride?
Chloride is one of the two components of sodium chloride, also known as table salt or rock salt. It is also one of the two components of potassium chloride, also known as potassium tablets or potassium crystals.

Why is chloride bad for water?
Too much chloride in the water can damage agricultural crops by causing leaf burn or drying of leaf tissue, thereby reduce crop yields. It also can harm aquatic life.

Why is it necessary to reduce chloride levels in the Santa Clara River?
The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) has set a water quality limit of 100 milligrams per liter (parts per million) for the Santa Clara River . Regional Board officials believe that this limit is necessary to protect downstream farmers growing sensitive agricultural crops, such as avocados and strawberries, that use river water for irrigation. In addition, the Santa Clara River is home to a number of endangered species, including steelhead trout, the Santa Ana sucker, the unarmored three-spine stickleback fish, and the Southwestern Arroyo toad. Currently the concentration of chloride being discharged to the river is twice the acceptable level established by the state.

How does chloride end up in the Santa Clara River?
In Santa Clarita, after we use water for washing dishes, showering, laundering, flushing toilets, and other uses, the “wastewater” that’s left goes to the sewer. From there it flows to either the Saugus Water Reclamation Plant or the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant for treatment. These treatment plants are owned and operated by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County , and they put water into the Santa Clara River after it has been treated. While the treatment plants remove many impurities and polluting substances from wastewater, they are not designed to remove chloride. The chloride in wastewater goes through the treatment plants to the Santa Clara River .

I always thought that most of the chloride in the Santa Clara River comes from industrial, rather than residential, use. Isn’t that true?
No. Most of the chloride in the Santa Clara River comes from residences, both from on-site regeneration of automatic water softeners and from chloride that already exists in the drinking water from your tap – these are the biggest sources. Small amounts of chloride also come from soaps, detergents and other cleaning products, particularly laundry products.

The discharge of chloride from industrial and commercial businesses is regulated by the Sanitation Districts, and Santa Clarita businesses have been prevented from using automatic water softeners since 1961.

How can I help reduce the amount of chloride going to the Santa Clara River?
If you have an automatic water softener, also known as a self-regenerating water softener or rock salt softener, the most important thing you can do is to stop discharging the salty waste (called brine) from it into the sewer system. Unplug it today and explore alternatives to your automatic water softener.

Other steps you can take are to use non-chlorine bleach instead of chlorine bleach and to minimize the amount of laundry detergents and fabric softeners that you use, since many of these products contain chloride. You can find environmentally sound detergents and cleaners at most grocery stores.

How do I know if I have an automatic water softener?
If you add salt or potassium to your water softener or have a water conditioning service do so, then you have an automatic water softener. If you have a water conditioning service change out the tank on your water softener on a regular basis, then you have a portable exchange tank system.

But I like my automatic water softener. Can I continue to use it?
Technically, yes. However, the Sanitation Districts have passed ordinances that prohibit new installation of automatic water softeners. They also have launched an outreach campaign asking all automatic water softener users to unplug their machines today.

If your softener breaks down, you cannot install a replacement—you’ll have to find an alternative (see below). You also cannot transfer your system when you move within the Santa Clarita Valley. Residents who violate the new ordinances banning the installation of self-regenerating water softeners will be subject to a fine of up to $1000 and/or imprisonment not to exceed 30 days.

If I use potassium chloride in my water softener instead of sodium chloride, will that help eliminate the problem?
No. Although potassium chloride does not contain sodium, it still contains chloride.

Can I divert the brine waste from the sewer system by installing a drain line into my yard, so that the discharged water can irrigate my lawn?
No, we do not recommend irrigating with brine waste, even if you use potassium chloride in your water softener. Irrigation with brine waste requires a permit from the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, and such permits are costly and difficult to obtain.

I don’t like the quality of the water coming into my home. How can I treat it without using an automatic water softener?
A number of different treatment systems are available for the water you use in your home. If you need soft water, you can switch to an alternative means of softening your water, such as an exchange tank water softening system. Some vendors offer non-salt treatment units for conditioning water. Depending on your needs, you may also consider filtration, activated carbon, or reverse osmosis treatment units.

Filtration simply stated, removes suspended matter from water by mechanical “screening.” Basic filters usually are porous beds of insoluble material. Other examples include cast forms, plates of sheet material, synthetic membranes, finely perforated plastic or specially sized beds of inert particles. Suspended silt, clay, colloids, and some microorganisms are removed by the filtration process. Simple cartridge filters may be effective for low levels of turbidity.

Activated Carbon Filtration systems involve the adhesion of one material on the surface of a second solid substance based on opposing electrical charges of each material. These systems are widely used to eliminate certain hazardous compounds related to industrial wastes, chemicals and pesticides. This treatment method can also remove unpleasant tastes and odors caused by decaying organic matter, dissolved gases, and residual chlorine.

Reverse Osmosis methods employ a unit divided into two chambers by a semi-permeable membrane. One of the chambers contains “raw” water with undesirable constituent(s) (e.g., salt). Reverse osmosis involves the application of pressure to the side of the chamber containing the “raw” water. This forces the water to leave the contaminated chamber and flow through the treatment membrane into the “treated” water chamber, leaving the unwanted minerals behind, which are then rinsed to the drain. The membrane filters the water on a molecular scale. Reverse osmosis provides partially demineralized water.

The American Ground Water Trust, state health departments, water well construction agencies, local health officials or ground water industry professionals are sources for assistance and/or referral to qualified water testing services. It is important to have an independent water analysis. Look for a professional who understands your water chemistry, explains your treatment options and who pays attention to the details specific to your home and water supply. Before purchasing major conditioning equipment, obtain information and bids from more than one conditioning company. You may want to check on the reputation of the company by contacting your local Better Business Bureau.

(Descriptions and suggestions above provided by the American Ground Water Trust.)

Why can’t the Sanitation Districts treat our tap water to make it softer and eliminate the need for water softener systems?
It is not within the Sanitation Districts’ purview to treat and serve drinking water. Any decision to further treat tap water would have to be made by the local water agencies in the Santa Clarita Valley. You can contact your water company to make your views known.

Note that it may be very costly and difficult to treat all of the tap water in the Santa Clarita area, since half of the potable (drinkable) water in the area comes from groundwater wells, and it is the water from the groundwater wells that is hard. Water treatment equipment would have to be installed and maintained at numerous wellhead locations that are scattered around the Santa Clarita Valley or combined to develop a centralized treatment facility and new distribution system.

But it’s not a problem for the vast majority of residents— most of the residences in the Santa Clarita area do not currently use automatic water softeners.

Why can’t the existing treatment plants be modified to take out the chloride?
They can be modified, but the treatment needed (microfiltration and reverse osmosis) is very costly. It will cost the Sanitation Districts and its customers more than $300 million to construct additional treatment to remove chloride from wastewater if the amount of chloride entering the sewers is not reduced by residents. Approximately 50 percent of this expense is due to the cost of installation of a 46-mile pipe (brine line) to take the salt waste produced during treatment to the ocean and the installation of a three-mile underwater pipe at the ocean.

the Sanitation Districts have to build new treatment facilities, will my sewage costs increase?
Yes. The cost of new facilities would have to be borne by residents and businesses of the Santa Clarita Valley, with sewage rates expected to increase by three times the current level, if the cost is equally distributed among all residences. If only users of self-regenerating water softeners are charged for the treatment, the cost could be approximately $2,000 per year per household with an automatic water softener.

still have questions. Who can I talk to for more information?
If you have any further questions about the ordinances or want more information about your choices, you may call the Sanitation Districts toll-free at 1-877-CUT-SALT or visit their chloride web site at

Water woes a hard problem for Fillmore folks

Some softeners must go or residents and city might face stiff fines

By Eric Leach
Staff Writer

By September 2008, the city could face fines up to $1.1 million a year if it does not comply with state water discharge requirements, officials said.

"Some people have said, why not just pay the fine and keep our water softeners, but that is not a viable alternative," said City Engineer Bert Rapp. "We could never consider violating the limits (state officials) have imposed."

One alternative for Fillmore's 4,200 households is to build a plant that would cost about $24 a month per household and soften water for the entire city without discharging prohibited levels of salt, Rapp said.

"If we can soften the city's drinking water (at this plant) it would remove 75 percent of the hardness in the water, which would make everybody's plumbing fixtures last longer, their water heaters would last longer, their clothes would wash better, their dishes would wash better. It would improve the quality of water for all of our customers."

Jonathan Bishop, executive officer of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the state agency that ordered Fillmore to clean up the problem, said the chloride is a threat to aquatic life in the river and agriculture in Ventura County.

Fines are possible in 2008 if Fillmore does not comply, but the amount of the fines would depend on the situation at that time, he said.

"This problem has been going on for 20 years. We've given Fillmore many chances to address this problem, and we support Fillmore's efforts to limit water softeners."

Fillmore is in a peculiar situation because of the hard water that comes from wells in the area and the ecological sensitivity of the Santa Clara River.

Dawn Ladny, a resident who supports building a plant to soften water for the entire city, said living in Fillmore without a water softener is not an option to many people.

"If I didn't have a water softener, I would be replacing my dishwasher every couple of years," she said.

Left untreated, the hard Fillmore water "tastes terrible and eats into the porcelain on your toilets and sinks," she said. "The glasses come out of the dishwasher clouded with lime deposits. Your skin is very dry."

The Fillmore area has a high concentration of minerals, anywhere from 18 to 30 grains per gallon, compared with Los Angeles, where water provided by the Department of Water and Power might range from 7 to 8 grains per gallon. In Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, the level is in the 9- to 15-grain range.

Those minerals can be removed by the so-called "automatic" water softening units that use rock salt and discharge the brine or chloride into the sewer system. New installation of such softeners has already been banned in Fillmore, but hundreds remain.

Other types of water softeners, like those supplied and maintained by companies such as Culligan or Rain do not create a problem because their canisters are removed and replaced regularly and the salt is not discharged into the local sewer system, but into a safe location by the ocean.

Company officials say costs of automatic softeners range from between $500 to $2,400, plus about $10 per month for expenses such as buying rock salt for a family of four. The water softening exchange services in Fillmore can cost from $30 to $75 per month, depending on the size of the household, and there may be installation costs, depending on the home, Rapp said.

City officials estimate that 39 percent of Fillmore's households have water softeners, but of these, only 422 households have the automatic brine-discharging variety that put salt in the river.

The city is asking residents to attend a public workshop on the problem at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Fillmore City Hall, 250 Central Ave.

In early spring, the city plans to send residents questionnaires on options the city might pursue.

One of the most controversial options is to add a $600 per month chloride control and removal surcharge to sewer bills, which would be lifted only if customers sign statements saying they do not have a brine-discharging water softener.

Original Article