What's in Lake Ramsey water

Covington, St. Tammany Parish · PWS ID LA1103139

The short answer

Lake Ramsey 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 kitchen faucet smells faintly of chlorine, this page is why. Lake Ramsey water carries chlorine at 0.7 parts per million, and it tests soft at 1.5 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. A lead result is in the report as well: one sample tested above the federal action level.

If the kitchen faucet smells faintly of chlorine, 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

Above the federal action level

Lead reached 48 ppb

Lead has no reliable taste, smell, or appearance in water. The published result was 48 ppb against the 15 ppb federal action level. Certified filtration at the drinking tap reduces lead.

Source: Lake Ramsey · 2025 water quality report · PWS ID LA1103139

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 reportLake Ramsey

Lake Ramsey · PWS ID LA1103139 · 2025 water quality report

chlorine, 0.7 ppm, about 2 times the level some people can detect · The chlorine 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

48 ppb against the 15 ppb federal action level, in the public report · A lead result worth knowing aboutCertified lead-reduction filtration at the tap

That chemical taste in your coffee and morning glass is chlorine, the disinfectant this system uses. The report also shows a lead result, and certified filtration at the drinking tap addresses it.

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 to reduce the reported lead in drinking and cooking water, and better drinking water comes with it.

Get my written plan and price

What this does for your home

Reduces the chlorine taste and smell in showers, coffee, tea, and cooking water
Certified lead reduction on the water you drink and cook with
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: Lake Ramsey annual water quality report. PWS ID LA1103139, 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 →

Clear at the faucet does not show you the trip it took.

Lead can enter water from service lines, solder, faucets, and fixtures after utility treatment. The public report cannot describe every home’s plumbing.

Corroded supply line removed from the founder's Covington home — A corroded supply line removed from Shawn's own Covington home.

Illustration of rust and mineral accumulation inside an aging municipal water main — What decades of rust and mineral accumulation can look like inside an aging main. Photorealistic illustration.

You cannot replace every pipe between the source and your faucet. You can put a final treatment barrier where the water enters your home and at the faucet used for drinking.

Get the written plan for Lake Ramsey

Enter your name, phone, and email. If your address matches this report, we will email your recommendation, options, and standard installed price in minutes.

What this means at your house

Your water arrives with chlorine in it, at 0.7 parts per million. That is the disinfectant Lake Ramsey 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.

This is soft water. Hardness tests at 1.5 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 the Lake Ramsey well. The published report for this system carries a lead result: one sample tested above the federal action level. Certified lead-reduction filtration at the drinking water tap is the piece that addresses it.

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 0.7 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.
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.
A lead result in the public report	It matters most at the tap you drink from	Reverse osmosis with certified lead reduction	The certification is specific to lead at the drinking tap.

Get the report for your exact address

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.

Get my written plan and price

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 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.