25 Communities In California Ban Water Softeners Using Salt

Indianapolis -The environmental movement appears to be making headway in its campaign to prohibit water softeners that use salt.

More than 25 communities in California have already banned or restricted the use of such water softeners on the grounds that they are hazardous to the environment.

The California communities include cities in such counties as Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Marcos, and Tulare.

Typical of the California laws is an ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors of the County of San Diego which says, ‘The discharge of water softeners brine wastes into District sewers shall be prohibited in accordance with the provisions of this section. This section is intended to apply to all districts where district’s final treated wastewater effluent is discharged to inland disposal or water reclamation uses.’

In a letter to one concerned citizen, the general manager of a water district in one of the California counties wrote:

• "The problem with salt softeners is that exchange sodium for hardness materials (such as calcium and magnesium) at a rate of 2:1."
• "The sodium enters the wastewater system and is discharged to the Santa Ana River following treatment."
• "Since the Santa Ana River recharges groundwater for Orange County, it is imperative that dissolved salts are kept to a minimum to avoid eventual degradation of drinking water supplies."
• "Widespread use of salt softeners could have a substantial adverse impact in dissolved salts..."

The executive director of the Santa Ana Region of the California Regional Water Quality Control wrote to another concerned environmentalist:

• "Experiencing a serious adverse salt balance problem due to extensive water re-use within the basin and the importation of water supplies from outside the basin."
• "As such, we strongly discourage the use of water softeners which would result in a salt discharge."
• "In fact, various water supply agencies within the region are currently joining together in a joint effort...to fund a feasibility study for a de-salting project in the upper basin."
• "We believe that it would most certainly be a step in the wrong direction to simultaneously encourage the use of water softeners which might be regenerated on site."

The Watts One-Flow Anti-Scale treatment does not utilize potentially harmful chemicals so there are no environmental hazards in using it. There is also no sodium residue, thus cutting down septic tank pump-outs and no water waste for a “green” solution.