Meridian Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Meridian, Mississippi, the Lauderdale County seat — the largest city in east-central Mississippi, historically the 'Queen City of Mississippi' (Meridian was the largest city in Mississippi and one of the major rail hubs of the Deep South in the late 19th century), birthplace of Jimmie Rodgers (the 'Father of Country Music' — the first major American country music star, born in Meridian in 1897, commemorated by the Jimmie Rodgers Museum), a historically significant Mississippi blues and country music heritage city, and a regional center of east Mississippi — draws its municipal water supply from Coastal Plain aquifer wells via the Meridian Water Works. Water hardness in Meridian measures 79 mg/L — classified as moderately soft.

Meridian's moderate softness reflects the east Mississippi Coastal Plain aquifer's calcareous-poor quartz-dominated geology. The Eocene Claiborne Group and Cretaceous Tuscahoma Sand aquifer units at Meridian–Lauderdale County are: predominantly calcareous-poor quartz sand (the east Mississippi Coastal Plain sand aquifer sequence is dominated by calcareous-poor quartz and kaolinite clay); with only limited calcareous cement zones. Meridian Water Works treatment of the calcareous-poor Coastal Plain sand aquifer produces the moderate 79 mg/L.

With hardness at 79 mg/L, Meridian residents enjoy moderately soft water. Meridian Water Works consistently delivers water meeting all Mississippi MDEQ and EPA Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.