According to the U.S. Geologic Survey, 85 percent of the United States has to cope with hard water, which is water with excessive levels of calcium and magnesium, or more simply put: dissolved rock. While hard water is not considered to be unhealthy for people to drink, it can be very detrimental for household plumbing, cleaning processes, and water-using appliances. The phrase “Hard Water” came about because it was found to be very hard to clean with. The Water Quality Association (www.wqa.org) rates water on a scale from 1 – 10.5 grains of rock per gallon of water. The “soft” water that residents enjoy along Lake Michigan is in fact very hard coming in at the top of the WQA scale at somewhere between 8 & 10 grains of hardness. While this is certainly softer than the water in Waukesha or Brookfield that registers a whopping 20+ grains per gallon, it is by no means soft, or less than 1 grain per gallon.