New self-regenerating salt water softeners are prohibited in Upland under the Inland Empire Utilities Agency ordinance, which also covers Chino, Chino Hills, Fontana, Montclair, Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga.
Existing units are grandfathered, so you are not required to remove one already in place, and IEUA pays a rebate if you decide to. But a new install is not permitted, and neither is a like-for-like replacement when your current unit fails.
Hardness in Upland
Upland is served by City of Upland and San Antonio Water Company. We do not publish a hardness figure we have not measured, so we test at your hose bib before we quote.
Can you install a water softener in Upland?
Not a new salt one. The ordinance targets the brine discharged during regeneration, which ends up in the wastewater stream and then in the regional groundwater basin.
This surprises people in Upland more than in some of the other covered cities, because plenty of older Upland homes have had softeners running for years under the grandfathering. Those can stay. New ones cannot go in.
What we install in Upland instead
A 10 GPM standard salt-free whole-home water conditioning system, $2,495 installed, equipment and professional installation included. It is sized for homes up to 3 bathrooms; larger homes are quoted separately. It conditions hardness minerals so they stop forming scale on pipes, water heaters and fixtures, rather than removing them from the water.
It includes whole-home carbon filtration for chlorine taste and odor, uses no salt, needs no drain line and never regenerates. Maintenance is one inexpensive filter cartridge a year.
How hard is the water in Upland?
Upland's water comes from the City of Upland system and the San Antonio Water Company depending on your address, drawing on local groundwater and imported supply.
We do not publish an Upland hardness figure we have not measured, so we test at your hose bib before quoting and size the system to that reading.
Historic Upland and the north foothills
The older neighborhoods near historic downtown and along the Euclid Avenue corridor include a good amount of early twentieth century housing. Those homes have no treatment loop, often have tight or awkward utility spaces, and sometimes still carry original supply line that decades of hard water have narrowed.
The north Upland foothill properties toward the San Gabriels are larger lots and a different construction pattern again. In both cases the salt-free system's lack of a drain line requirement simplifies an install that would otherwise be constrained by where a regeneration drain could physically go.
The full ordinance, and the rebate
We wrote a longer page on the IEUA ordinance, which cities it covers, how the grandfathering works, and how the removal rebate is claimed.
Read our salt-free water conditioning guideWater filtration questions from Upland homeowners
Are water softeners banned in Upland?
Who supplies water in Upland?
My neighbor has a softener. Why can't I install one?
Nearby cities we serve
- Water filtration in Montclair
- Water filtration in Rancho Cucamonga
- Water filtration in Ontario
- Water filtration in Chino
Not sure which system fits your home? Read our water system guide, or see the main water filtration page for how the options compare.
The $2,495 price is for the 10 GPM standard system, sized for homes up to 3 bathrooms. Homes with 4 or more bathrooms need the 15 GPM system, quoted separately after the on-site walkthrough. Any water line run required by the location of your main is quoted separately in writing after the on-site walkthrough. Taxes and payment processing fees are not included. Price confirmed in writing before any work starts.