Well Water Treatment in
San Diego, CA and Surrounding Areas
From Culligan of San Diego

No. The State Water Resources Control Board states that California does not formally regulate private domestic well water quality. There is no required periodic test and nothing is triggered when you sell the property. The one mandatory test in San Diego County is tied to construction: before the County issues a building or septic permit, the owner must submit a sample clear on total coliform, E. coli and nitrate, and occupancy is withheld without it. Those results are valid for a year and that is the extent of it.

Yes. San Diego County’s well ordinance requires a written permit before anyone constructs, repairs, reconstructs or destroys a well, and that includes deepening it, reperforating it, or replacing or extending the casing. The well has to meet the state’s construction standards. The permit covers how the well is built, not what comes out of it.

Manganese. When the state sampled 137 private domestic wells across the county, 45 of them, about a third, exceeded the 50 µg/L secondary standard. It is what leaves black specks in the tub and dark stains in laundry. Iron came next at 21 wells, with a top result of 12,500 µg/L against a 300 µg/L standard. Both come out with the same family of filtration.

It depends on your well to a degree that surprises people. The state’s private well study reported hardness from 24 to 1,000 mg/L as calcium carbonate, roughly 1 to 58 grains per gallon, and published no average. Most of these wells draw from fractured granite, where the chemistry is set by whichever fractures the borehole happens to hit. Your neighbor’s result tells you very little about yours.

City of San Diego water runs 172 to 248 ppm total hardness across its three treatment plants, about 10 to 14.5 grains per gallon. That is hard water by any measure, but it is consistent, because most of it is imported and blended before it reaches you. A well has no one blending it. Note that figure covers the City of San Diego’s system and not Helix, Otay, Vista, Carlsbad, Olivenhain or Escondido.

It is worth doing. Of the 137 private wells the state sampled, 54 were analyzed for radionuclides, and 19 of those exceeded the 15 pCi/L limit for gross alpha activity while 16 exceeded California’s 20 pCi/L limit for uranium. Granitic bedrock is the source. The County lists its radionuclide concern areas as Campo and Lake Morena, Cuyamaca and Julian, Guatay, Jamul and Dulzura, Lake Wohlford, Potrero, eastern Ramona, the Route 79 corridor and Warner Springs. Fifty-four wells is a small sample of volunteers, so treat it as a reason to test rather than a prediction.

No. Softening removes hardness minerals through ion exchange and does not address uranium. Reverse osmosis at the drinking tap is the standard treatment. If a test comes back with uranium, that changes the recommendation, which is exactly why we test before we quote.

Much less common here than uranium. In the same set of 54 wells, radium 226 plus 228 exceeded its 5 pCi/L limit in only 2. It is worth including in a radionuclide panel, but uranium and gross alpha are the results that turn up in this county.

In some areas, yes. The state’s sampling found 25 of 137 private wells above the nitrate limit, and the County names its problem areas as Alpine, Cameron Corners, Crest, rural Escondido, Jamul, Morena Village, Rainbow, Ramona, San Marcos and Valley Center, attributing it to septic systems and agricultural application. Nitrate is one of the three analytes the County requires before a building permit, so a recently built home has a baseline. An older one may not.

Dissolved solids. In the state’s private well study, 21 of 137 wells were above the 1,000 mg/L upper secondary standard for total dissolved solids, with a top result of 1,830 mg/L. A softener will not fix a salty taste. Reverse osmosis at the drinking tap is what handles it.

Most well homes in this county end up with both, because hardness and the iron or manganese problem are separate issues with separate solutions. Whole home filtration paired with softening is the common answer, with a drinking water system added when uranium or dissolved solids show up.

No. A properly functioning water softener will never make your water taste salty. The small amount of sodium added is far too little to create a salty taste. If your water already tastes salty before treatment, that is dissolved solids and it needs a different system.

Through ion exchange. As it removes the calcium and magnesium that make water hard, it replaces those ions one for one with sodium. The amount added is proportional to how hard your water is, and in most cases it isn’t a significant contributor to the sodium in your diet.

Yes. Once a softener is installed it begins removing the scale that hard water built up. It takes a long time to clear, but it will clear.

Other than salt or potassium chloride, no. A softener reduces the cleaning supplies and detergents going down your drain, which makes it a net positive environmentally.

Modern softeners recharge based on how much water you use and how hard it is. Most of our customers add salt once or twice a year, though a well at the hard end of the county’s range will work a system harder than one in the middle.

Hardness, iron and manganese are aesthetic and nuisance problems at the levels usually found here. Uranium, nitrate, bacteria and arsenic are health questions and each is a separate test. Arsenic, for what it is worth, turned up above its limit in only 3 of the 137 wells sampled. Start with a water test and we’ll tell you honestly which category your results fall into.

Most residential systems install in a few hours in a single visit. We deliver the equipment, install it, and set it up, so there’s nothing for you to unbox or assemble.

As soon as the well is drilled and the County sample comes back. You will already be testing for coliform and nitrate at that point, so it is the natural moment to run a fuller panel and rough in space and plumbing for treatment. Retrofitting a finished home costs considerably more.

Every recommendation we make starts with knowing what is in your water. The test is free, it happens at your house, and it takes about half an hour. You’ll get your numbers explained in plain language and an honest answer about whether you need treatment at all.