Is Northshore water hard or soft?
Updated July 2026
Short answer: the public water systems around here overwhelmingly test soft. That surprises almost everyone, because the symptoms people call "hard water" are everywhere. Both things are true, and the difference decides whether a softener is worth thousands of dollars to you or worth nothing.
What the reports actually say
Water hardness is calcium and magnesium. It appears in many public reports, although some systems do not publish it because hardness is not federally regulated. Where St. Tammany systems publish a number, the pattern is consistent: soft to very soft water. The 2025 reports show Covington at 3.5 mg/L, Mandeville at 1.8, Pearl River at 5.2, and the parish's River Oaks system at 4.2. This is aquifer water, and these readings carry very little calcium or magnesium.
Then why are my fixtures crusty and my glasses spotted?
Because soft water can still carry plenty of other stuff. Northshore groundwater runs alkaline, with sodium, silica, and dissolved solids that dry into white film on fixtures, spots on glassware, and residue on shower doors. It looks exactly like hard water scale, and the difference matters because the fixes are completely different.
The money question
A softener removes calcium and magnesium. If your water barely has any, a softener has close to nothing to do. The film-and-spots problem is a dissolved-solids problem. Reverse osmosis removes those from your drinking water and the glasses you rinse at the sink. Shower glass and dishwashers run on separate plumbing, and the fixes there are habits, which we hand out free. Wells and some private systems are a different story: some genuinely run hard, and those homes genuinely benefit from softening. The numbers make the call.
Across the lake, the answer changes
New Orleans, Metairie, and Kenner drink the Mississippi River, and their current reports show hard water at roughly 4.1 to 5.9 grains per gallon. That is why a softener belongs in the Southshore recommendation in a way it rarely does on the Northshore. The number decides.
How to know for sure
Look up your neighborhood rather than your city. Different neighborhoods here run on different water systems with different numbers. Ours takes thirty seconds and reads your system's actual published report.