Effective Water Softeners and Water Treatment Systems in Waukesha, Wi for Clean and Pure Water

Federal Standards Bring About Changes to Water Softener Use Like many Wisconsin communities, Waukesha is required under federal and state standards to reduce chlorides in its wastewater. We need to show progress towards meeting those standards because there is no cost-effective way to remove chlorides at the Clean Water Plant. You can help – and reduce your salt usage by 80% on average after the Lake Michigan water switchover – by having your water softener optimized. Optimization – which includes checking settings and adjusting them for hardness, salt dosage, and reserve capacity – will improve the salt efficiency of most softeners. After optimization you should be able to use less salt and save money without a noticeable change in water quality. Now that Waukesha has converted to the Lake Michigan water supply, some owners may choose to bypass their softeners because Lake Michigan water is significantly softer than the city’s former water supply. The city’s intent is to allow users the choice to keep their softeners, but only if they are optimized by January 1, 2025. The city cannot meet its chloride permit limits without the cooperation of softener owners. While water softener salt is the largest source of chlorides in the treated wastewater discharged by Waukesha’s Clean Water Plant, the city continues implementing cost-effective strategies to reduce road deicing salt usage through actions such as purchasing new equipment for its deicing operations. We also coordinate with businesses and their commercial applicators to reduce their deicing salt applications through education, training, and similar information sharing. Chlorides are harmful to fish and other aquatic life in rivers and other bodies of water. This is why all cities like Waukesha have a chloride permit limit. Here is an eye-opening video about what Waukesha and other municipalities are facing: Being Salt Wise with Water Softeners.

Softener Optimization Requirements 

If you choose to continue using your water softener now that the City has converted to Lake Michigan water, you must have it optimized by January 1, 2025. High-volume water users must have their softeners optimized as soon as they can be scheduled. These are businesses and residences that use more than 80,000 gallons of water per year (about 20% of all sewer users). Letters were sent in January, 2023 to all high-volume water users to inform them of the optimization requirements. If your softener was optimized prior to the water switch, the hardness setting must be adjusted to the lower Lake Michigan water hardness. Contact your optimizer company to make this adjustment (pricing may vary for high water users). For more about the program, including a list of optimizers, enter “Softener Salt” in the search bar on the city’s website, waukesha-wi.gov, or click here: https://www.waukesha-wi.gov/watersoftener.  

Softener Use After the Switch to Lake Michigan Water

For most users, whether or not to use a softener is a matter of personal preference. Some users have already bypassed their softeners after the conversion to Lake Michigan water. It has been found that many water customers object to hardness of more than 9 grains per gallon. Waukesha’s former water supply averaged around 21 grains per gallon. Therefore, most of Waukesha’s customers used water softeners. Water from Lake Michigan however, at 8 grains per gallon, is below the level of hardness that many people would object to. Most users of Milwaukee water – including those who have switched from groundwater – choose not to use water softeners. If you are considering getting a new softener, you may want to determine your satisfaction with unsoftened Milwaukee water before investing in a new softener. You may also want to ask friends that use unsoftened Milwaukee water about their experiences. If you choose to continue using your water softener, you must have it optimized. That should save you money through significantly reduced salt use, and it will reduce chlorides in your wastewater that goes to the Clean Water Plant. Optimizing your softener to match the reduced Lake Michigan water hardness can reduce as much as 80% of the salt use that would be achieved by removing your softener. If your softener is a time-clock unit, a limited optimization may be possible depending on your water usage. Although the hardness and your household size can be adjusted to match current conditions, time-clock softeners usually will not meet the city’s salt standard. We therefore recommend that you bypass and unplug your time-clock softener. If you intend to continue using a softener, we recommend replacing your time-clock softener because they use significantly more salt than modern demand-based softeners.  

Reducing or eliminating water softener salt will also help save ratepayers money because there is no cost-effective way to remove chlorides at the Clean Water Plant. For example, the Madison wastewater treatment facility estimated a potential cost of nearly $2 billion to construct a chloride treatment facility. The city will continue to implement deicing salt reductions where it is able, however reduction of softener salt at the source is our only feasible solution to meet our chloride permit limit.

You can learn more about the various sources of chloride pollution and ways to reduce it at wisaltwise.com and the Clean Water Plant website.