Whole House Water Softeners in Preston Hollow

Preston Hollow is inside the Dallas system, and the Dallas plant nearest its story is Bachman. Dallas Water Utilities describes Bachman as the oldest and smallest of its three plants, first built in the 1920s and expanded over the decades to 150 million gallons a day, and sited near the center of the city's water demand so that its water has the shortest trip to the tap and the lowest delivery cost. The plant is reached from Harry Hines Boulevard along Shorecrest Drive, with the main entry near the Dallas Rowing Club. Its raw water is the same as the Elm Fork plant's: the city's December 2023 memorandum says both receive water from lakes Ray Roberts, Lewisville and Grapevine down the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, while the East Side plant works a different set of lakes. Dallas does not publish a map of which plant serves which street, so a Preston Hollow tap may be on Bachman water, Elm Fork water or a mix of the two, but all of it starts in the same three reservoirs. The lake beside the plant tells the same story of a supply outgrown. Dallas Water Utilities' 2021 briefing to the Park Board dates the Bachman Lake dam to 1901, notes the lake was originally a water supply and was converted to recreation in the 1960s, and records a 2002 dredging to an 8-foot depth. The utility dredged it again, finishing in February 2023, and in September 2023 the council took up a $43,179,000 contract to rebuild the dam and spillway over about 24 months, a job that includes replacing the railroad bridge across the spillway that carries deliveries into the plant. The 1999 water quality report lists the first phase of a Shorecrest water transmission main among that year's projects.

That water is hard. The memorandum puts Dallas's hardness at 120 to 155 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which works out to roughly 7 grains per gallon at the bottom and 9 at the top; by the USGS bands only the lowest reading is moderately hard and the rest is hard. Lake water picks up calcium and magnesium from the ground its tributaries cross, and Lewisville Lake alone collects runoff from about 1,660 square miles. Bachman has also been rebuilt to change how the water behaves in old pipes. A study finished in June 2009 found that treated water was reacting with older unlined cast iron mains and causing rust-colored water, and the utility redesigned Bachman's process around enhanced coagulation and biologically active filtration, with a new ferric chemical facility, modified lime slakers and a replacement for a clearwell more than 80 years old. The second construction phase was due to finish in late 2016, with the stated aim of a more chemically and biologically stable water. Disinfection at Bachman is by chloramine, chlorine and ammonia together.

At a Preston Hollow tap, then, the mineral content is set by the Elm Fork lakes and the season rather than by the neighborhood, and the Dallas range is the figure this page carries. A house on a 1950s street and a new build on the same block receive the same water; the difference between them is in the plumbing, since scale builds fastest where hard water is heated and where it stands. Size a softener to the top of the Dallas range, 9 grains, and use the free water test to learn where inside that range your own tap sits.

Sources: City of Dallas memorandum, June 20, 2014, Bachman Water Treatment Plant Water Quality Improvements Project · City of Dallas memorandum, February 7, 2019, Bachman Water Treatment Plant Tour · City of Dallas memorandum, December 1, 2023 · City of Dallas 1998 Water Quality Report · Dallas Water Utilities, Water Quality Information · Texas Water Development Board, Lewisville Lake · Dallas Water Utilities, Bachman Lake Dredging briefing to the Dallas Park and Recreation Board, March 4, 2021 · City of Dallas memorandum, September 22, 2023, South Bachman Lake Dam and Spillway Improvements Project · City of Dallas 1999 Water Quality Report