Maple Grove Seeking Residents’ Input on Possible Centralized Water Softening

The City of Maple Grove continues to study whether to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to install the equipment to offer centralized water softening to its residential and business water customers.

Residential water customers in Maple Grove may still desire to have their own water softening systems if the city offers system-wide softer water.

“If the city does move forward with centralized water softening, it’s important to know that all water delivered to your home or your business would be softened already,” said Director of Engineering and Public Works Chris LaBounty. “So that would be: water going to your irrigation system, going to your sink, your bathroom. So there would be less options for where there is softened or un-softened water, and you’d be paying that higher rate for all of it, including irrigation.”

LaBounty said the city would retrofit its existing water treatment plant at an investment that would cost at least $100 million and he estimates most customer’s water bills would increase by about $30 per month per 6,000 gallons of water used.

“Some residents will be able to discontinue use of their softener system, or see reduced costs in terms of salter purchasing or additional wear-and-tear on things like their water heater, but other residents may decide to keep their water softener because they want extra-soft water, more than the city would deliver, so the amount of cost reduction they would see would be less than those that discontinue use of their softener,” said LaBounty.

The city continues to seek input from residents and other stakeholders, and will have representatives out at upcoming events like the Farmers Market and Maple Grove Days to answer questions. There is also a website to learn more and an online survey open through September. 

Maple Grove

Cities Stories