Cahaba Water Co.
The Greater Birmingham Water Report.
Every utility serving this metro, with the figures each one publishes about its own water — hardness, what it disinfects with, what that disinfection leaves behind, and lead. One table, every source cited. As far as we can tell, nobody else has assembled this, which is the only reason we did.
What each utility publishes.
Hardness is not a regulated contaminant, so no utility is obliged to report it — and two here do not. Where a figure is missing below, it is missing from the utility's report, not from our reading of it.
| Utility | Source | Total hardness | Grains/gal | TTHM | HAA5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Alabama Water Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Homewood, most of Hoover, Gardendale |
Surface | 38–224 mg/L | 2.2–13.1 | 11.4–26.0 ppb | 11.7–34.3 ppb |
| Trussville Gas & Water Trussville |
Groundwater 8 wells | 152 mg/L | 8.9 | ND–7.5 ppb | Non-detect |
| Pelham Water Works Pelham, Indian Springs, parts of Hoover |
Wells + purchased surface | 75 and 204 mg/L | 4.4 and 11.9 | — | — |
| Alabaster Water Department Alabaster |
Wells + purchased surface | 195 ppm wells 86 and 95 purchased | 11.4 5.0 and 5.6 | — | — |
| Shelby County Water Services Chelsea, Greystone, Westover; wholesale to Alabaster |
Surface 2 plants, Coosa basin | 86 and 95 ppm | 5.0 and 5.6 | 17.0–54.0 ppb 17.8–22.5 ppb | — |
| Leeds Water Works Board Part of Leeds |
Groundwater | Not published | Not published | 10.4 ppb | Non-detect |
| Irondale Water System Irondale |
Groundwater 4 wells | Report not obtained | — | — | — |
| Bessemer Water Service Bessemer; Lake Cyrus and Ross Bridge in Hoover |
Purchased surface | Report not obtained | — | — | — |
| Regulatory limit | 80 ppb | 60 ppb | |||
Hardness converted to grains per gallon by dividing mg/L by 17.1. Source classifications from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management's public water system inventory. Every other figure is quoted from the named utility's own annual water quality report — see Sources at the foot of this page. Each figure is inside its limit.
Three things worth reading twice.
- There is no "Birmingham hardness." Across this metro the published figures run from 2.2 grains to 11.9, and Central Alabama Water alone spans slightly hard to very hard inside one system. Any single number offered for the whole city is a sales figure, not a measurement.
- Groundwater systems report far lower disinfection byproducts. Trussville and Leeds, the two groundwater systems with published figures, report haloacetic acids at non-detect. The surface systems report real numbers. Chlorine needs organic matter to form byproducts, and water that has sat in rock carries very little. We wrote that up in detail.
- Two utilities publish no hardness figure at all. Leeds Water Works omits it from both tables of its report, and we have not obtained a consumer report for Irondale. Hardness is not regulated, so neither is obliged to. If you are on one of those systems, no published number for your water exists anywhere.
The practical consequence is the same in every row: a system figure is not your figure. It is measured at a plant or averaged across a distribution network, and what reaches your tap has travelled through that network and your own plumbing. The table tells you what to expect. Only a test tells you what you have.
How this was put together, and its limits.
Where the figures come from
Each utility's own annual water quality report, also called a Consumer Confidence Report, which the Safe Drinking Water Act requires them to publish. Source-water classifications come from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management's public water system inventory, which is the state's own register.
We did not use any of the water-quality aggregator sites. They disagree with each other and with the utilities: one reported Shelby County at 92 ppm where the utility's own report says 86 and 95. Close, but it is not a source.
Why some cells are empty
Three reasons, and we distinguish them. Not published means the utility's report does not contain that figure — Leeds omits hardness entirely. Report not obtained means we have asked for or looked for the report and do not yet hold it, which is the case for Irondale and Bessemer. A dash means we hold the report but it does not break that parameter out in a form we can quote.
We would rather leave a cell empty than fill it with a regional estimate.
Why the reporting years differ
Utilities publish on their own schedules, and small systems often run a year or two behind large ones. The Central Alabama Water figures are from its 2026 report covering 2025 monitoring; Trussville and Leeds are 2025 reports; Shelby County is 2023; Pelham and Alabaster are 2024. Each is the most recent we hold. The year is given against every source below.
Can I cite this?
Yes, and please link to the utilities' own reports rather than to us where you can — they are the primary sources and they are listed below. If this page is useful to a neighborhood association, a realtor or a reporter, that is what it is for.
We sell water treatment, so read the table with that in mind. It is also the reason the table says plainly that most of these systems are moderately hard at worst and that every figure in it is inside its regulatory limit.
When does this update?
Annually, as new reports publish, and sooner whenever we obtain one of the two missing ones. This is edition one, October 2026.
Every figure, traceable.
- Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Drinking Water Branch — public water system inventory, Jefferson and Shelby counties. Source-water classifications and PWSIDs. Retrieved October 2026.
- Central Alabama Water (formerly Birmingham Water Works) — 2026 Annual Water Quality Report, covering 2025 monitoring data. PWSID AL0000738.
- Trussville Gas & Water — annual water quality report. PWSID AL0000761.
- Pelham Water Works — 2024 annual drinking water quality report. PWSID AL0001163.
- Alabaster Water Department — 2024 annual drinking water quality report. PWSID AL0001148.
- Shelby County Water Services — 2023 Consumer Confidence Report. PWSID AL0001671.
- The Water Works Board of the City of Leeds — 2025 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, for the 2024 period. PWSID AL0000753.
- City of Irondale, Water Works department — system description, well count and capacity. PWSID AL0000751. Consumer report not obtained.
- City of Hoover, Water Services — which utility serves which part of the city.
None of these numbers is yours
Every figure above is measured at a plant or averaged across a system. We mail a hardness test kit, free. You run it yourself in about two minutes, nobody comes to the house, and you keep the result.