Polk County, Iowa has about 516,185 residents (Census 2024 estimate) and 38 community water systems in EPA records. The largest local system is Des Moines Water Works, serving about 246,055 people from surface water.
Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.
Des Moines Water Works Estimate: untreated local water, not your tap · Low confidence
17.7 gpg (304 mg/L), very hard
Polk County: median of 694 results from 66 monitoring sites (streams and wells). Utilities may blend or treat water, so your tap can differ.
Source: Hard Water Map county data, samples through 2017
County estimates: Hard Water Map (hardwatermap.com), CC BY 4.0, derived from the USGS/EPA Water Quality Portal; file generated 2026-07-22. License
Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.
For a 3-person home using 57 gallons per person per day and regenerating weekly, you'd remove about 21,187 grains between regenerations. Suggested size: 24,000 grain. This uses a low-confidence county estimate, so confirm with a test first.
Estimate only. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.
The 6 biggest of 38 community water systems on EPA records for this county. Service areas don't follow county lines; your water bill names your provider.
IA7727031 · serves about 246,055 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: <DL (below the lab detection/reporting limit; reported as 0) (period starting 2022-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IA7709053 · serves about 76,207 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: <DL (below the lab detection/reporting limit; reported as 0) (period starting 2023-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IA7780042 · serves about 45,605 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: <DL (below the lab detection/reporting limit; reported as 0) (period starting 2022-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IA7785007 · serves about 73,959 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: <DL (below the lab detection/reporting limit; reported as 0) (period starting 2021-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IA7740011 · serves about 24,897 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: <DL (below the lab detection/reporting limit; reported as 0) (period starting 2023-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IA7707030 · serves about 22,436 people · Groundwater
Lead 90th percentile: 5.6 ppb (period starting 2023-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.
A PFAS detection is not a violation. Federal limits (4 ppt for PFOA and PFOS) apply to running annual averages, with compliance required by 2029. In May 2026 EPA proposed extending the PFOA/PFOS deadline to 2031 and removing other PFAS limits; not final as of 2026-10-21.
These are public records for whole systems. Your home's pipes, fixtures and any private well can change what you drink. A certified lab test or a hardness test strip gives you your own numbers. Then use our PFAS and lead filter selector to see which certifications to look for.
1 of the 6 largest systems here have at least one health-based violation in EPA records since October 2021 (see each system below for status). Des Moines Water Works's most recent lead 90th percentile was below the lab detection limit (2022), below the 15 ppb action level. Public records can't guarantee what comes out of your tap, especially with older plumbing, so a home test is the surest check.
There's no published utility figure in our data, but untreated local stream and well samples in Polk County have a median of about 17.7 grains per gallon (304 mg/L, very hard). That's a low-confidence estimate of source water, not your tap, so test before you buy equipment. For a 3-person home at 17.7 gpg, our softener calculator suggests a 24,000 grain unit as a starting point.
None of the 6 sampled systems listed here detected PFAS above EPA's reporting levels in UCMR 5 testing.
Most homes are served by Des Moines Water Works or one of the other systems listed on this page, but service areas don't follow county lines. Your water bill names your provider, and its annual Consumer Confidence Report has the full test results.
Data as of October 21, 2026. Figures are copied from public records and combined with our own calculations; they can be out of date or wrong. Tapped Out isn't affiliated with any utility or the EPA. Written and reviewed by the Tapped Out team. How we calculate · All sources.