Martinez, California
City of Martinez section of the 2024 CCWD regional booklet. The city purchases untreated CCWD water and treats it. Hardness 78 mg/L (50–128). Chloramines 1.8 mg/L (ND–4.2). Parts of Martinez receive CCWD treated water instead — check the bill. No Measure S-style ban turned up.
- Hardness78 mg/L (50–128)
- Chloramines1.8 mg/L (ND–4.2)
Best match for Martinez
Salt-based water softener — confirm the district first
Check the sanitation district before installing a salt system.

Ask the agency on the sewer side of the bill before you cut a brine drain. California lets districts restrict self-regenerating units. A “banned in California” blog is not your district.
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Other options that still fit
Salt-free conditioner
A salt-free conditioner changes how scale sticks. It does not soften. Soap and spots stay closer to untreated. No brine line.
Whole-house catalytic carbon for chloramine
Catalytic carbon with a chloramine claim (NSF/ANSI 42 for chloramine). Regular chlorine carbon is the wrong box.
Under-sink reverse osmosis
The under-sink RO we actually run is Cloud RO — NSF/ANSI 58, kitchen tap, not a whole-house tank. Check the exact listing if PFAS is why you are shopping. Shop Amazon first for under-sink RO, or buy Cloud direct. Waterdrop is a tankless option if you want that path. A certifier-listed pitcher is the cheap first step. Nobody is paying for a medical claim.
Shop under-sink reverse osmosisBuy Cloud RO directShop Waterdrop reverse osmosisShop PFAS-listed pitchers
Test the tap first
A homeowner kit is a start. It is not a state-certified lab. Use a certified lab when the decision is expensive.
On the report
- Water utility
- City of Martinez
- Hardness
- City of Martinez general water-quality table: Hardness 78 mg/L (range 50–128), 2024. Not the CCWD treated-water column. — City of Martinez 2024 tables in the CCWD regional Annual Water Quality Report
- Disinfectant
- City of Martinez chloramines as Cl2 1.8 mg/L highest quarterly RAA (range ND–4.2), MRDL 4.0, 2024. — City of Martinez 2024 tables in the CCWD regional Annual Water Quality Report
- Brine / salt to the sewer
- Check the sanitation district before installing. No city or sanitation-district residential self-regenerating softener ban like LACSD Measure S or IEUA Ordinance § 2.6 turned up on the pages we opened. That is not a statewide ban finding. Ask the agency on the sewer bill before you cut a brine drain.
Also around here
Extra context besides the utility report and the chart above — geology, an unregulated table, or a published study. Not a second set of printed tap numbers.
- MicroplasticsWHO’s 2019 review examined studies that found microplastic particles in treated tap and bottled water in many places. That is a published-occurrence finding, not a number from this city’s water-quality report, and we do not invent a particles-per-liter count for the tap.Microplastics in drinking-water — World Health Organization
- PFASEPA’s Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule required community systems this size to test 29 PFAS and lithium in 2023–2025. Open the UCMR 5 Data Finder for this PWS. This file does not invent a detection.Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Martinez drinking water on this file is the City of Martinez treatment plant for addresses the city serves. The 2024 booklet says some Martinez addresses receive CCWD treated water instead — check the bill. No city or sanitation-district residential self-regenerating softener ban like LACSD Measure S or IEUA Ordinance § 2.6 turned up on the pages we opened. That is not a statewide ban finding. Ask the agency on the sewer bill before you cut a brine drain. This is not a legal opinion.
City table hardness 78 mg/L (50–128). Chloramines 1.8 mg/L (ND–4.2). Kitchen shopping stays the Cloud RO / Waterdrop path already used on other cities if a listing is why you are looking.
Sources
- 2024 Annual Water Quality Report — City of Martinez tables (opened as PWS CA0710006) — City of Martinez / Contra Costa Water District / State Water Resources Control Board. Accessed 2026-09-11.
Updated September 11, 2026. A city file is chemistry we can cite plus the sewer rule. No invented detections.