Covington area, western St. Tammany water, explained

Covington, St. Tammany Parish · PWS ID LA1103033

The short answer

Covington area water is soft, about 0.1 grains per gallon, chlorine-disinfected groundwater. The recommendation for this water: a whole-home catalytic carbon filter plus reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink.

If the shower smells like a swimming pool some mornings, this page is why. Covington area water carries chlorine at 1.2 parts per million, and it tests soft at 2 milligrams per liter, about 0.1 grains per gallon. For perspective, some people can taste or smell chlorine at levels as low as 0.3 parts per million. The white film left where tap water dries here is dissolved mineral, and a softener is not what removes it. Film on dishwasher-washed glasses is its own story, mostly the dishwasher's.

If the shower smells like a swimming pool some mornings, this page is why. 1 grains per gallon.

Why this is the recommendation

What you may notice in your waterBeneath the surfaceWhat gets your attention?

What you notice

The smell and the way showers feel

Pool-like smell when the shower gets hot
Skin that feels tight or dry afterward
Hair that feels dry or harder to manage
Water, coffee, or tea that tastes off

What Covington area reports

More than one number matters

chlorine, 1.2 ppm, about 4 times the level some people can detect
hardness at 0.1 grains per gallon
dissolved solids the water carries

Source: St. Tammany Water Works District 2 · 2025 water quality report · PWS ID LA1103033

What this report does not rule out

PFAS cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted

This report does not include a usable PFAS result. No result is not the same as no PFAS. Certified kitchen reverse osmosis reduces PFOA and PFOS in the water used for drinking and cooking.

Your water report

Your water reportCovington area

St. Tammany Water Works District 2 · PWS ID LA1103033 · 2025 water quality report

chlorine, 1.2 ppm, about 4 times the level some people can detect · The pool taste and smellCatalytic carbon takes it out

hardness at 0.1 grains per gallon · Already soft water, with no hardness problem to treatNo softener recommended

dissolved solids the water carries · White film where tap water dries on fixtures and glassReverse osmosis handles it at the kitchen tap

The film on your glasses and fixtures is the part people ask about first. These numbers come straight from your water utility's published report.

Water system boundaries interlock around here, so we confirm yours by address before we quote anything.

What we'd install

Based on the report, whole-home catalytic carbon for the chlorine at every tap. Reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink is in this package for the film: it is the piece that clears the glasses you rinse at that tap, and drinking water and coffee come with it.

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What this does for your home

Reduces the chlorine taste and smell in showers, coffee, tea, and cooking water
Spot-free glasses from the kitchen tap
No unnecessary softener for water that already tests soft
Filtered drinking water from its own kitchen faucet

Cutaway of a water heater with sediment settled at the bottom

Easier on the parts that wear out

Sediment settles in your water heater and lowers its efficiency, and chlorine and chloramine embrittle the rubber seals, gaskets, and hoses inside your appliances over time. Filtering the whole house is gentler on all of it.

U.S. Dept. of Energy Energy Saver; ASTM D6284.

Source: St. Tammany Water Works District 2 annual water quality report. PWS ID LA1103033, verifiable in the EPA Safe Drinking Water database →Figures are as published by the system; see the original report for sampling methods and ranges.The published report reviewed for this page does not include a usable PFAS result, so this page does not claim that PFAS are present at this address.Get my written plan and price →

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The public recordNo violations on record

This St. Tammany Parish system (Waterworks District 2) has a clean record. EPA shows no drinking-water violations as of August 2026.

EPA ECHO. Public records, current as of August 2026. They update quarterly. Operators: contact us to correct an error.

What this means at your house

Your water arrives with chlorine in it, at 1.2 parts per million. That is the disinfectant St. Tammany Water Works uses, and it is the taste people notice in coffee, in tea, and in the first glass of the day. For perspective, some people can taste or smell chlorine at levels as low as 0.3 parts per million. Catalytic carbon takes it out at every tap in the house.

The white film on glasses and fixtures is dissolved mineral left behind as water dries. In this system's published report that shows up as a pH of 8.31. On the pH scale, where 7 is neutral, 8.31 leans toward the baking-soda end, and alkaline water leaves its minerals behind as it dries. Reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink takes the dissolved solids out of your drinking water, and glasses rinsed at that tap dry without the film.

This is soft water. Hardness tests at 2 milligrams per liter, about 0.1 grains, and for a family using around 300 gallons a day that puts a couple of pounds of dissolved rock through the house in a year. Genuinely hard water runs well past a hundred pounds a year, and that difference is why a softener is not in the package for this neighborhood.

The water here is groundwater, pumped from four wells.

How the report becomes the recommendation

Each finding decides a piece of the package, including the pieces we leave out.

The report shows	At your house	The answer	Why that one
Chlorine at 1.2 ppm	The taste and smell in coffee, tea, and the first glass of the day	Whole-home catalytic carbon	Chlorine sticks to carbon on contact, and a full-size tank gives the water that contact time.
Dissolved solids	White film left where tap water dries	Reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink	The membrane takes dissolved solids out, and the kitchen tap is where you taste them.
Hardness at 0.1 grains per gallon, soft	No scale problem to fix	No softener	The resin would have nothing to grab, so it stays out of the quote.

What this area covers

The system that serves Covington area also serves these streets and subdivisions, as named in the published record:

Audrey Heights
Bogue Glen
Covington Gardens
Live Oak Trace
Lonesome Pines
Magnolia Gardens
Sunrise Park
Wilson Plantation
The Vineyards

Water system boundaries interlock around here, so we confirm yours by address before we quote anything.

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Tell us your address and we will pull the report for the water system that serves it. You get our recommendation and the price in writing before any work starts, and a licensed plumber handles the install.

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Nearby in Covington

← All neighborhood water reports

It cannot say what is causing dry skin at your house. Hot water, soap, weather, and the disinfectant can all contribute, and the report only establishes that the disinfectant is present.

It cannot speak for the pipes inside your own walls. Lead sampling covers a handful of homes across the whole system, and your service line, solder, and fixtures are yours alone.

It says nothing about sediment at your particular faucet; annual reports do not measure what collects in one house.

Before anything goes on a quote, we ask what you are actually noticing and test whatever the published data cannot answer.