Whole House Water Softeners in Poetry

Federal drinking-water records describe Poetry Water Supply Corporation as a community system of 1,212 service connections serving about 3,636 people, with one source: a surface-water connection from the City of Terrell. Terrell's 2025 report, in turn, names Lake Tawakoni, which spreads across Hunt, Rains and Van Zandt counties, as its primary source and Lavon Lake in Collin County as its secondary one, both delivered already treated by the North Texas Municipal Water District. The district's Tawakoni plant, which began operating in 2011, treats that lake's water for the southern part of its service area. Terrell's water department moves up to 10 million gallons a day through two towers holding 2.5 million gallons between them and a 3-million-gallon ground tank, and tests at 20 sampling points around the city, before any of that water crosses into Poetry's lines.

Two lakes means two sets of numbers, and Terrell posts both of the district's 2025 data sheets on its water page. The Tawakoni plant sheet lists total hardness as calcium carbonate at 249 ppm as the highest result, in a range of 60.0 to 249, with calcium from 24.6 to 47.3 ppm, magnesium 2.52, sodium 14.2 to 37.2, total alkalinity 52.0 to 75.2 and total dissolved solids from 175 to 264 ppm. The Wylie plant sheet, for the Lavon water, puts hardness at 96.0 to 200 ppm, sodium 41.9 to 88.0 and dissolved solids 182 to 455 ppm. Dividing by the district's 17.12, the Tawakoni sheet's figures range from about 3.5 to about 14.5 grains per gallon and the Wylie sheet's from about 5.6 up to 11.7, so the Tawakoni supply swings wider, from soft at its lowest to very hard at its peak. These are the supplier's plant figures. Neither Terrell's report nor any Poetry document we could find prints a hardness figure for what arrives in Poetry, and the only data on file for the corporation itself are federal lead and copper results, so this page carries no number for the town.

What that means at a tap in Poetry is that the hardness depends on which lake Terrell was drawing on and when, and that ratio is set by the district and the city, not by the corporation. In a month when Tawakoni water dominates the mix, scale can build faster than in a month of Lavon water, and the swing can be large: the Tawakoni range alone covers every class on the USGS scale from soft to very hard. The regional district says its treated water as a whole is considered moderately hard, which is a fair description of the middle of both ranges but not of their tops. Since no one publishes the figure for Poetry, we will not guess it; the free water test measures your water on the day it is taken, and we size for the top of that reading, with the Tawakoni peak in mind.

Sources: EPA Envirofacts SDWIS, water system record record for TX1290022 Poetry WSC · EPA Envirofacts SDWIS, water system facility records records for TX1290022 Poetry WSC · City of Terrell 2025 Consumer Confidence Report, Where Your Water Comes From · City of Terrell, Water department page · NTMWD Tawakoni Water Treatment Plants, Water Quality Data for Year 2025, secondary constituents · NTMWD Wylie Water Treatment Plants, Water Quality Data for Year 2025, secondary constituents · North Texas Municipal Water District, Water Quality Reports page · North Texas Municipal Water District, History timeline · North Texas Municipal Water District, Water Quality page