Penn Mill Lakes water, in plain English

Covington, St. Tammany Parish · PWS ID LA1103185

The short answer

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

Chloramine is easier to miss than chlorine because its smell is less obvious. Penn Mill Lakes water carries chloramine at 1.5 parts per million, and it tests soft at 2.4 milligrams per liter, about 0.1 grains per gallon. For perspective, chloramine in drinking water typically runs from 0.5 to 2 parts per million. At 1.5 parts per million, this system is in the upper half of that range. Unless a pitcher or refrigerator filter specifically lists chloramine reduction, do not assume it removes it. 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.

Chloramine is easier to miss than chlorine because its smell is less obvious. 1 grains per gallon.

Why this is the recommendation

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

Why it is easy to miss

Chloramine can be present without a strong smell

The report confirms chloramine in this water even if you do not notice the obvious pool smell associated with chlorine. Ordinary pitcher and refrigerator filters should not be assumed to reduce it unless chloramine is specifically listed.

A faint chemical taste or odor, or no obvious warning at all
Skin that feels tight or dry afterward
Hair that feels dry or harder to manage
Water, coffee, or tea that tastes off

What Penn Mill Lakes reports

More than one number matters

chloramine at 1.5 ppm, in the upper half of the typical range
hardness at 0.1 grains per gallon
dissolved solids the water carries

Source: Magnolia - Penn Mill Lakes (CSWR) · 2025 water quality report · PWS ID LA1103185

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 reportPenn Mill Lakes

Magnolia - Penn Mill Lakes (CSWR) · PWS ID LA1103185 · 2025 water quality report

chloramine at 1.5 ppm, in the upper half of the typical range · Made to last longer and often less noticeable than chlorineCatalytic carbon removes it throughout the house

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. The numbers above come from your water utility's published report. What we'd install follows from them, and from what you want fixed.

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 chloramine 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 chloramine throughout the house, including showers and the water used for coffee, tea, and cooking
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: Magnolia - Penn Mill Lakes (CSWR) annual water quality report. PWS ID LA1103185, 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 Magnolia Water system (Penn Mill Lakes) has a clean violation record. EPA shows no drinking-water violations as of August 2026. Its operator, Magnolia Water, is under a Louisiana Public Service Commission investigative audit of its billing and service practices, due February 2027.

EPA ECHO · LPSC Docket U-37584. 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 chloramine in it, at 1.5 parts per million. Utilities make chloramine by combining chlorine with ammonia so it remains effective farther through the distribution system. It can be less obvious than chlorine: some people notice a faint chemical taste or odor, while others notice nothing at all. Ordinary pitcher and refrigerator filters should not be assumed to reduce it unless chloramine is specifically listed. Catalytic carbon reduces it before the water reaches 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 sodium at 72.4 milligrams per liter and a pH of 8.91. On the pH scale, where 7 is neutral, 8.91 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 2.4 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 Penn Mill Lakes Well 1.

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
Chloramine at 1.5 ppm	The taste and smell in coffee, tea, and the first glass of the day	Whole-home catalytic carbon	Chloramine holds together inside plain carbon. Catalytic carbon is processed to break it apart.
Dissolved solids, sodium at 72.4 milligrams per liter	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.

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

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Nearby in Covington

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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.