Anniston Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Anniston, Alabama, in Calhoun County — the historic "Model City" of northeast Alabama, a former center of pipe and steel manufacturing and site of the Anniston Army Depot and the controversially handled chemical weapons stockpile — receives its municipal water from the Anniston Water Works Board, which draws from the Choccolocco Creek watershed through reservoir impoundments in the Talladega Mountain terrain east of Anniston. Choccolocco Creek provides the primary water supply for the Anniston metropolitan area.

The soft 63.5 mg/L hardness and low TDS of 109.9 mg/L reflect the excellent quality of Choccolocco Creek's mountainous headwaters in the Talladega Belt. The Choccolocco watershed drains the Talladega Mountains — underlain by the Talladega Belt metasedimentary sequence (Cambrian-Ordovician Hillabee Greenstone, Hillabee Schist, Sylacauga Marble in some zones, and Choccolocco Mountain quartzite and metasedimentary rocks) — a low-carbonate, highly weathered crystalline terrain typical of the Inner Valley Blue Ridge of Alabama. The quartzite and phyllitic metasedimentary rocks of the Talladega Belt weather slowly and produce soft, dilute water. Calhoun County's forests and protected watershed areas maintain consistently soft, clean source water.

At 63.5 mg/L, Anniston's water is soft — favorable for household appliances and comfortable for everyday use. Scale forms slowly over many months, soap lathers abundantly, and the dishwasher produces clean results. Semi-annual to annual descaling of heating appliances is adequate. The PFAS level of 4.2 ppt is moderate — the Anniston Army Depot (a major chemical weapons and military ordnance facility with PFAS-containing firefighting foam use) and the industrial heritage of the Anniston steel and manufacturing corridor contribute to Calhoun County's PFAS background, though the protected Choccolocco watershed provides some buffer.