Cahaba Water Co.
Alabaster buys water from three other utilities and pumps its own.
Four supplies feeding about 13,471 metered connections, and they are not remotely alike. The wells publish 11.4 grains. The purchased river water publishes 5.0. This is the most structurally complicated water system we work on, and the most worth testing before you buy anything.
Where Alabaster water comes from.
Most utilities have one source, or two. The Alabaster Water Board reports four, and it publishes hardness separately for them because they genuinely differ.
| Supply | Type | Total hardness | In grains | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three Alabaster wells Longview Newalla aquifer |
Groundwater | 195 ppm | 11.4 | Very hard |
| Shelby County South WTP Purchased |
Coosa River | 86 ppm | 5.0 | Moderate |
| Talladega-Shelby WTP Purchased |
Coosa River | 95 ppm | 5.6 | Moderate |
| Bessemer Water Service Purchased, via Bessemer GUSC |
Warrior River | Reported through the supplying system | ||
The gap between the top and bottom rows is six and a half grains. A softener that is correctly sized for the well supply is oversized for the purchased supply, and a system sized for the purchased supply will run out of capacity on the wells. This is the reason we test in Alabaster rather than quoting from the report.
Alabaster uses chlorine dioxide, which is unusual here.
The report lists free chlorine at up to 2.47 ppm against a maximum residual disinfectant level of 4, and chlorine dioxide at 0.27 to 0.75 ppm. Most systems in this metro use chlorine or chloramine alone.
Chlorine dioxide is a legitimate and well-established disinfectant, and utilities often choose it precisely because it forms fewer of the byproducts that free chlorine does. It also has a characteristic taste and odor that some people notice and others don't.
On byproducts, the report puts trihalomethanes at a locational running annual average of 22.5 to 70.3 ppb, against a maximum contaminant level of 80 ppb. That is within the limit, and Alabaster is in compliance. It is also the closest to a limit of any system we have read in this metro, and the spread across monitoring locations is wide — which is, again, four supplies showing up in the data.
What that does and doesn't mean. Water inside its MCL is water the regulation considers acceptable to drink, and we are not going to suggest otherwise. What it means practically is that if chlorine taste at the kitchen tap is what bothers you in Alabaster, that complaint is well supported by the published data, and carbon plus reverse osmosis at the drinking tap is the direct answer to it. It is not an argument for treating the whole house.
In Alabaster, the test does more work than usual.
On most systems a test confirms what the report implies. Here it decides between two genuinely different answers, and the report can't do it for you.
- Test first, always. Free mailed strip. Your result places you on the well supply or the purchased supply, and that determines whether softening makes sense at all.
- If you land near 11.4 grains, softening is worth real discussion, and sizing needs to assume the hard supply rather than an average.
- If you land near 5.0, it mostly isn't, and we'll say so. That's a moderate figure not far off Birmingham's upper end.
- If taste is the complaint, that's a drinking-water problem with a drinking-water answer, and it's separate from hardness entirely.
Alabaster water, answered.
How hard is Alabaster water?
Do I need a water softener in Alabaster?
Where does Alabaster get its water?
Why does Alabaster water taste different?
Is Alabaster water safe to drink?
Do you install in Alabaster?
Four supplies. One of them is yours.
A free mailed test strip places your house on the hard supply or the moderate one, and that single result changes the recommendation.