Selma Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Selma, Alabama, in Dallas County — the Dallas County seat on the Alabama River, a historic city of profound civil rights significance — the site of Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965), when voting rights marchers were beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a moment that catalyzed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — receives its municipal water from the City of Selma Water Works Board, which draws from the Alabama River at the Selma intake.

The moderately hard 182.5 mg/L hardness and elevated TDS of 489.2 mg/L reflect the Alabama River at Selma's diverse watershed geology. The Alabama River above Selma receives the Cahaba River (draining the Appalachian Valley and Ridge — Ordovician Knox Dolomite, Cambrian Conasauga Limestone, Devonian Frog Mountain Sandstone), the Coosa River (draining the carbonate Valley and Ridge of northeast Alabama), and local drainage from the Alabama Coastal Plain (the Cretaceous Selma Chalk — the chalky marine carbonate layer that gives Selma its name and underlies the Black Belt prairie). These carbonate-rich Valley and Ridge and Selma Chalk contributions produce the moderately hard elevated-TDS supply.

At 182.5 mg/L, Selma's water is moderately hard — scale builds in kettles and appliances over months, dishwashers benefit from rinse aid, and bathroom fixtures develop calcium deposits. Quarterly descaling is appropriate. The PFAS level of 8.5 ppt warrants a certified drinking water filter — Craig Air Force Base (former — now Selma-Craig Airport — AFFF legacy in the Alabama River watershed), the Redstone Arsenal (Madison County, Alabama River system) PFAS upstream, and the Alabama industrial PFAS corridor contribute to Selma's elevated readings.