What's in Madisonville on the Lake water

Madisonville, St. Tammany Parish · PWS ID LA1103176

The short answer

Madisonville on the Lake water is soft, about 0.4 grains per gallon, chlorine-disinfected groundwater. The recommendation for this water: a sediment prefilter when suspended material is confirmed at the house, a whole-home catalytic carbon filter, a pH neutralizer, iron and manganese filtration, plus optional reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink.

If the shower smells like a swimming pool some mornings, this page is why. Madisonville on the Lake water carries chlorine at 0.7 parts per million, and it tests soft at 7.6 milligrams per liter, about 0.4 grains per gallon. For perspective, some people can taste or smell chlorine at levels as low as 0.3 parts per million. The published report also shows iron and manganese above the aesthetic limit, plus a pH of 5.95, on the acidic side.

If the shower smells like a swimming pool some mornings, this page is why. 4 grains per gallon.

Why this is the recommendation

If the shower smells like a swimming pool some mornings, this page is why. Madisonville on the Lake water carries chlorine at 0.7 parts per million, and it tests soft at 7.6 milligrams per liter, about 0.4 grains per gallon. For perspective, some people can taste or smell chlorine at levels as low as 0.3 parts per million. The published report also shows iron and manganese above the aesthetic limit, plus a pH of 5.95, on the acidic side.

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 leaves a mark

The staining has a measured source

Iron and manganese can leave orange or dark marks in tubs, sinks, fixtures, and laundry. Treatment built for those metals goes ahead of the rest of the system.

What this report does not rule out

PFAS cannot be seen, smelled, or tastedPFAS are a large family of long-lasting manufactured chemicals. They are often called “forever chemicals” because they break down very slowly.

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 reportMadisonville on the Lake

Madisonville on the Lake · PWS ID LA1103176 · 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 0.4 grains per gallon · Already soft water, with no hardness problem to treatNo softener recommended
iron and manganese above the aesthetic limit · Orange or dark stainingIron and manganese filtration is built for exactly this
acidic water, pH 5.95 · Blue-green stains around copper drainsA neutralizer brings it to balance
That chemical taste in your coffee and morning glass is chlorine, the disinfectant this system uses. The staining in tubs and laundry comes from the iron and manganese in the report, and filtration built for it takes it out.
What we'd install

Based on the report, whole-home catalytic carbon for the chlorine at every tap. Sediment can vary house to house in the Madisonville area. If we find grit or suspended material at your tap, a whole-home sediment prefilter goes first in the treatment line. A pH neutralizer goes in ahead of it to bring the water back to balance. Iron and manganese filtration handles the staining before it reaches your fixtures. Reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink is optional, for drinking water and coffee. The whole-house recommendation remains the catalytic-carbon system either way.

Sediment prefilter
Sediment prefilterAdded when grit or suspended material is present
Whole-home catalytic carbon
Whole-home catalytic carbonCleans every tap in the house
pH neutralizer
pH neutralizerStops acidic water working on copper pipe
Iron and manganese filtration
Iron and manganese filtrationBuilt for the staining in tubs and laundry
Reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosisDrinking water at the kitchen sink
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What this does for your home
  • Reduces the chlorine taste and smell in showers, coffee, tea, and cooking water
  • Built to remove the iron and manganese behind the tub and laundry staining
  • A neutralizer raises the low pH before the water reaches your copper plumbing
  • 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: Madisonville on the Lake annual water quality report. PWS ID LA1103176, 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 →

The water keeps interacting with plumbing after the meter.

Before water reaches your glass, it travels through the public distribution system, your service line, and the plumbing inside your house. These are the surfaces people never see.

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.

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What this means at your house

Your water arrives with chlorine in it, at 0.7 parts per million. That is the disinfectant Madisonville on the Lake 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 7.6 milligrams per liter, about 0.4 grains, and for a family using around 300 gallons a day that puts roughly 7 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 Madisonville on the Lake Well 1. The report also shows iron and manganese above the aesthetic limit. That is what causes the staining that shows up in tubs, sinks, and laundry over time, and iron and manganese filtration is built for exactly that. The pH here runs acidic, at 5.95. Acidic water works on copper plumbing, which is where blue-green stains around drains come from. A neutralizer brings the pH back to balance ahead of everything else.

How the report becomes the recommendation

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

The report showsAt your houseThe answerWhy that one
Possible sediment after utility treatmentGrit in aerators, toilet tanks, and small valvesSediment prefilter when confirmed at the houseSediment can enter from mains, service lines, or home plumbing, so the annual report cannot tell us whether your house needs this stage.
Chlorine at 0.7 ppmThe taste and smell in coffee, tea, and the first glass of the dayWhole-home catalytic carbonChlorine sticks to carbon on contact, and a full-size tank gives the water that contact time.
Hardness at 0.4 grains per gallon, softNo scale problem to fixNo softenerThe resin would have nothing to grab, so it stays out of the quote.
pH of 5.95, acidicBlue-green stains around copper drainspH neutralizerBringing the pH back to neutral stops the water from working on your copper.
Iron and manganese above the aesthetic limitOrange or dark staining in tubs, sinks, and laundryIron and manganese filtrationIt is built for exactly this kind of staining.

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.

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Nearby in Madisonville

← 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.

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