Wenatchee Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Wenatchee, Washington, the Chelan County seat — a major north central Washington Columbia River Valley apple growing city (Wenatchee is the 'Apple Capital of the World' — Chelan and Douglas Counties produce a significant portion of the US apple crop, and the Wenatchee Valley is one of the most important apple producing regions in North America), home of the Ohme Gardens (a spectacular mountain rock garden above the Columbia River — one of the most distinctive gardens in the Pacific Northwest), a diverse Chelan County community with a significant Latino-American agricultural worker population, adjacent to the dramatic Columbia River Valley and North Cascades, and an important river recreation and agricultural city in north central Washington — draws its municipal water supply from the Wenatchee River via the City of Wenatchee Water Division. Water hardness in Wenatchee measures 81.5 mg/L — classified as moderately soft.

Wenatchee's moderate softness reflects the Wenatchee River Cascade watershed's calcareous-poor geology. The Wenatchee River (Tumwater Canyon) at Wenatchee–Chelan County drains: the Precambrian Chelan Complex (calcareous-poor gneiss and migmatite of the North Cascades core); the Eocene calcareous-poor Chumstick Formation (the Chelan County Eocene sedimentary basin fill). City of Wenatchee treatment produces the moderate 81.5 mg/L.

With hardness at 81.5 mg/L, Wenatchee residents enjoy moderately soft water. City of Wenatchee Water Division consistently delivers water meeting all Washington State DOE and EPA Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.