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Mountmellick Hard Water Information

Mountmellick Hard Water Supply Information

Introduction

Many public water supply schemes in County Laois supply "hard water". Groundwater wells are being used more and more by Local Authorities to supply water as the water produced is usually of better quality and requires less treatment than river water. This trend will continue into the future and additional schemes are likely to be supplied from groundwater.

Water hardness is caused by a variety of dissolved metallic ions, predominantly Calcium and Magnesium.  These ions are naturally present in water and can reach considerably high concentrations in groundwater from limestone areas.

Hardness is a natural characteristic of water and can enhance its palatibility. It is perfectly safe for everyone to drink and is good for you. Drinking hard water will increase intake of essential minerals and health studies in several countries in recent years indicate that mortality rates from heart diseases are lower in areas with hard water.

The water supply in Mountmellick has recently been improved with the commissioning of two new groundwater well sources. Although the two new sources have increased the hardness of the water, they have enabled Laois County Council to improve the overall quality of the water, the security of supply and reduce the quantity required from the old surface water source.

Water Quality Limits

Hardness is generally expressed as mg/l CaCO 3 units, although other units can be used. The following is one of several arbitrary classifications of waters by hardness:

Soft up to 50mg/l CaCO3

Moderately Soft 51 – 100 mg/l CaCO3

Slightly Hard 101 – 150 mg/l CaCO3

Moderately Hard 151 – 250 mg/l CaCO3

Hard 251 – 350 CaCO3

Excessively Hard over 350 mg/l CaCO3

There is no specific limit for Hardness under the Irish Drinking Water Regulations.

General Advice

There is no health risk associated with hardness. However, when hard water is heated calcium deposits or ‘lime scale’ might form. This can affect household appliances such as kettles, dishwashers, washing machines and some heating systems.

What can I do?

Kettles

Try to boil only what you need and don’t leave the surplus boiled water lying in the kettle. Kettles can be descaled by half filling with half water / half vinegar, leaving overnight, rinsing, refill and boil water, then discard water and kettle is ready for use. Descaling kits (such as a scale collector placed in the kettle) are also widely available in supermarkets. In some types of plastic kettle, the scale may not stick to the sides but float on the surface of the water. This can be avoided by regularly rinsing the kettle.

Washing Machines

A wide range of products are commercially available (e.g. Calgon) to prevent the deposition of lime scale during the heating of water in washing machines. Varying the dosage of washing powder may also work.

HeatingSystems

Indirect heating systems where water is re-circulated are generally not affected by limescale. Direct heating systems, where fresh water replaces heated boiler water, may experience some deposition in pipes and reduced boiler efficiency. Symptoms of this would be rattling in the pipes when the water is heated, and gradually longer heating times.

Dishwashers

Dishwashers generally have built-in water softeners. Householders should ensure these are set according to manufacturer’s instructions. In general, reducing the temperature of your hot water to 60 degrees celsius or lower can decrease scale deposition.

Shower Head

If limescale has built up – soak the shower head in half vinegar / half water solution for three hours or overnight to remove the limescale. Descaling kits are widely available in supermarkets.

The "soft" option

Chemically softened water is not suitable for everyone to drink - particularly for infants and other risk categories. For that reason it is not recommended that entire mains water supplies are softened.

Even though the hard water is perfectly safe to drink, meets all the required drinking water standards and is good for you, some people may choose to ‘soften’ their own supply.

Hard water can be ‘softened’ by chemically removing calcium (by ion exchange) from the water and replacing it with other ions. Each individual household has the option of installing their own domestic water softening unit. There are no grants or funding available from central Government or from Laois County Council to assist with the installation of softening units or the purchase of new appliances.

The effectiveness of softening units cannot be guaranteed, nor can Laois County Council recommend any particular unit. Care in the design and installation of softening systems is essential, in order to prevent excessively high levels of chemicals in the softened water. For this reason, consideration could be given to softening only the water sent to the domestic hot water system and the cold water supply to the kitchen sink could be excluded from the softening process.

The water quality (including hardness) of all public water schemes in Laois is continuously monitored by Laois County Council to ensure compliance with the EC Drinking Water Regulations and to ensure that a high quality product is consistently delivered to all our customers.