Bayou Cane Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Bayou Cane, Louisiana, in Terrebonne Parish — an unincorporated Terrebonne Parish community adjacent to Houma in the south Louisiana coastal delta, in the heart of the Terrebonne Basin — a low-lying coastal community in the Louisiana bayou delta corridor subject to rapid land subsidence — receives its municipal water from the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, drawing from local surface water or the Atchafalaya River basin supply.

The moderately hard 146 mg/L hardness and TDS of 363.4 mg/L reflect Bayou Cane's south Louisiana coastal delta water character. The Atchafalaya Basin and Terrebonne Parish draw on the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — terrain underlain by Holocene and Pleistocene Mississippi River alluvial delta deposits (clay, silt, organic-rich sediment, and shallow calcareous marine shell layers). The coastal delta alluvial water in Terrebonne Parish contains moderate calcium and bicarbonate from shallow shell-hash carbonate sediment dissolution and the brackish-water transition zone influence of the Gulf Coast.

At 146 mg/L, Bayou Cane's water is moderately hard — scale builds in kettles and appliances over months, dishwashers benefit from rinse aid, and faucet aerators need periodic cleaning. Quarterly descaling is appropriate. The PFAS level of 12.7 ppt is very high and warrants a certified reverse osmosis drinking water filter — the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans (Belle Chasse, Plaquemines Parish — AFFF user in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya watershed), the extensive south Louisiana petrochemical corridor (the "Cancer Alley" industrial complex from Baton Rouge to New Orleans), and the Terrebonne Parish oil-gas production PFAS industrial complex contribute to Bayou Cane's extremely elevated readings.