Pelham and Indian Springs Village · Pelham Water Works

Pelham publishes two hardness numbers. One of them is very hard.

75 mg/L and 204 mg/L — that's 4.4 and 11.9 grains per gallon in the same report. Both are true, for different houses. A five-minute test at your kitchen tap settles which one arrives at yours, and that single number drives everything we would recommend.

Why there are two

Pelham runs two kinds of water at once.

Pelham Water Works, PWSID AL0001163, operates five wells and also buys finished water from Shelby County. Those are two different waters, and the system reports them separately.

Five wells

Drawing on the Copper Ridge Dolomite and Longview Limestone aquifers. Water that has been sitting in carbonate rock dissolves calcium and magnesium out of it, which is why the high figure is high.

The 204 mg/L end — 11.9 gpg, very hard on the standard classification.

Purchased surface water

Bought from Shelby County Water Services, drawn from the Coosa River at Lay Lake. Surface water spends far less time against limestone, so it arrives much softer.

The 75 mg/L end — 4.4 gpg, moderately hard.

That is a spread of seven and a half grains inside a single utility, packed into a map a fraction the size of the Central Alabama Water (formerly Birmingham Water Works) service area. The Pelham report publishes both figures and does not map either one to an address, which is why the useful answer comes from your own tap.

How we answer a Pelham address

We test the tap first, then we quote.

Either published figure describes one of the two supplies. A five-minute test tells you which one reaches your house, and that is the number we size and price from.

What we do: mail you a free test strip. Five minutes at your kitchen tap settles which water you actually have, and it costs nothing.
What we do: ask Pelham Water Works which source feeds your address, if you'd like a second confirmation before anything gets sized.
What we do: size from the figure your own tap returns, whichever end of the range it lands on, and confirm the final price before scheduling.
What we skip: the averaged figure. 8.2 grains describes a spreadsheet rather than anybody's water.

If you test near the top of the range, softening is genuinely worth discussing. Around 11.9 grains you're well past the point where it delivers a noticeable difference in soap performance, spotting and appliance life. And if you test near the bottom, we'll say so and point you toward drinking-water treatment instead — at 4.4 grains the same money does more under the sink than it does in the garage.

Indian Springs Village

Indian Springs is on Pelham water.

Which surprises people, because it's a separate municipality with its own character and a lot of larger lots. The water, though, comes from Pelham Water Works, and everything on this page applies.

Two things do tend to differ on an Indian Springs property, and both are about the house rather than the utility. Larger homes with more simultaneous fixtures need carbon sized to a higher design peak flow, which is a hydraulic question rather than a water quality one. And a handful of properties at the edges of the village are on private wells rather than city water — if that's you, the utility's published figures do not describe your supply, and we size from a well test instead.

Common questions

Pelham water, answered.

How hard is Pelham water?

Pelham Water Works publishes two total hardness figures, 75 mg/L and 204 mg/L, which are 4.4 and 11.9 grains per gallon. The utility runs five wells and also buys treated surface water from Shelby County, and the two supplies are very different. The report does not map which source serves which address, so a test at your own tap is the only reliable answer.

Do I need a water softener in Pelham?

It depends entirely on which of Pelham's two supplies reaches your house, which is why we test before answering. If you come back near 11.9 grains per gallon, softening is well worth discussing. If you come back near 4.4, drinking-water treatment is usually the better place to spend, and we will tell you so. A five-minute strip at your kitchen tap settles it either way, and we size from the result.

Is Indian Springs Village on Pelham water?

Yes. Indian Springs Village is served by Pelham Water Works, so the same two-source situation applies. Some properties at the edges of the village are on private wells instead, and those homes are sized from a well test rather than the utility report.

Is Pelham on Central Alabama Water?

No. Pelham Water Works is a separate utility with its own wells and its own purchased supply, and its published hardness runs considerably higher than Birmingham's. A Pelham address deserves Pelham figures, which is why we start with a test at your tap rather than advice written for the Birmingham system.

Where does Pelham get its water?

From five wells drawing on the Copper Ridge Dolomite and Longview Limestone aquifers, plus finished water purchased from Shelby County Water Services, which draws from the Coosa River at Lay Lake. The wells are the hard supply; the purchased river water is the softer one.

Do you install in Pelham and Indian Springs?

Yes, both are inside our everyday service ring, so we handle under-sink reverse osmosis and ongoing filter service there as well as whole-home systems. Our full service area is here.

Settle which water you have

Two numbers, seven and a half grains apart. A free mailed test strip settles which one is yours, and your system is sized and priced from that result.

Request a free test