We've lived just south of Wellborn for about 3 years now and our water comes from the Wellborn SUD. I believe they purchase it from the City of Bryan, but could be wrong.

Anyway, about 3-4 weeks ago we suddenly noticed that the water was even "softer" than normal. It was almost impossible to get the soap rinsed off while taking a shower. (no, we had made no changes whatsoever in our soap or shampoo products).

Has anyone else noticed this change? I've lived in B/CS since '91 and always hated how "slimy" the water feels. That said, it seemed to climb to new heights a while back and was wondering if anyone else had experienced this.

Actually the soap is washed off, your skin just feels "slimey" (it's a soap minerals reacting with fewer ions leaving the natural skin oils thing).

OK . . . . but it has gotten much worse recently . . . which is what I'm really wondering about. . . but thanks for clearing that up for me :-)

Wellborn does not purchase the water from Bryan. Wellborn maintains their own water wells.

... that is until CS annexes the land underneath the Wellborn water tower, then is will be CS water, without all the chlorine.

jkhughes, I see your angry face icon, but I hope that it was meant to indicate sarcasm.
Fair warning: I'm climbing on my soap box so this may take a while.

1) Wellborn's water does not come from underneath its water tower. It comes from groundwater wells (not City of College Station, although before Wellborn drilled its wells, it did purchase its water from College Station).
2) Wellborn already has the Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) to provide water service for the area in question, so they will continue to be the water provider.
3) Wellborn SUD is a public water system, therefore it must maintain a disinfectant (chlorine) residual, which is a requirement of all public water systems in Texas. The form of chlorine College Station uses means the water sometimes has a "swimming pool" smell. This isn't harmful, and in fact it dissipates rapidly. Smaller water suppliers are allowed to use a disinfectant that is somewhat similar to bleach so those of you in rural areas may notice a "Clorox" smell to your water.

Now, here's something I want to stress: the disinfectant, be it chlorine or bleach, is there to keep the water free from disease. All the way up to the early part of the 20th century, before water supplies were disinfected, waterborne disease was quite common. Personally, I would much rather put up with a bit of odor rather than the explosive diarrhea and dehydration that comes from waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid.

Climbing off my soap box...

To the original poster, the softness of the water here is inherent to the groundwater and that's what contributes to the feeling of never getting the soap off of your skin. I wish there was a cost-effective way to remedy this, but I'm not aware of one. I moved here from a part of CA where the water was so hard the steam from the shower left rust stains on the walls! The softness takes some getting used to, but I'll take this over hard water.

[This message has been edited by egret (edited 2/26/2008 2:13p).]

Egret, thanks! That information is really informative and helpful.

Any idea, though, why the "feel" of the water would change so dramatically for a period of time? Maybe they changed the mix?

The original intent of the post was to see if anyone else had noticed the change . . . just wanted to ask around before I called Wellborn SUD. Thanks, again, for the responses.

Agfan, thanks for your interest. You could ask if Wellborn has put a new well onlne that is coming from a different source. They may not have recent results for softness b/c metals and minerals are only required to be tested for every 6 to 8 years. The quality of groundwater tends to stay fairly consistent, as opposed to surface water quality which varies based on changing conditions w/ the source lake or river, and treatment chemicals.

Water quality reports for public water suppliers will be coming out in May/June and have test results from 2007. These reports are required of all public water suppliers and answer customers' questions about what's in the water, where it comes from, and how it's treated. I still have LOTS of copies of College Station's "Water Illustrated" drinking water quality report and I'm sure Wellborn can also provide a copy of their report.

Who provides your water has nothing to do with the city limits and everything to do with who holds the CCN (and certificated area) from TCEQ, like Egret says.

Wellborn SUD already serves customers who were annexed by the City of College Station and has been serving them for at least several years.