Highland Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Highland, Indiana, in Lake County in the Calumet Region adjacent to Munster and Griffith — a well-established Lake County residential community at the heart of the Chicago-Indiana metropolitan border zone — receives its municipal water from the Town of Highland Water Utility, which purchases treated water from the Hammond Water Works or the Lake County Indiana Water Commission, drawing from river sources in the Lake County Calumet corridor. Like its immediate neighbor Munster, Highland is integrated into the Lake County Indiana regional water supply network.

The very hard 206 mg/L hardness and elevated TDS of 442.2 mg/L closely mirror Munster's supply profile (208 mg/L, 449.6 TDS), reflecting the same Kankakee River or Little Calumet River basin source. The Kankakee River system drains the Kankakee Sand Plain — a large glacial outwash and glaciolacustrine plain deposited by Laurentide Ice Sheet meltwater — over the buried Silurian Niagara Dolomite and Ordovician Galena-Platteville Dolomite carbonate platform. Groundwater baseflow from these dolomite formations sustains the river with consistent carbonate hardness year-round. The highly agricultural Kankakee River basin additionally contributes dissolved solids from the flat prairie agricultural drainage network.

At 206 mg/L, Highland residents face very hard water requiring active household management — consistent with the Lake County Indiana Calumet Region water profile. Scale builds rapidly in kettles and coffee machines within weeks, dishwashers require rinse aid or softener treatment, and bathroom fixtures develop substantial calcium deposits. Descaling appliances every four to six weeks is appropriate. A whole-house water softener is commonly used in Lake County Indiana homes. The PFAS level of 6.5 ppt warrants a certified drinking water filter — the Calumet Region's heavy industrial legacy and the Hammond-Gary-East Chicago industrial corridor contribute to elevated PFAS in the Lake County water supply.