Every correction to a figure or claim a reader could see, with what the page said, what it says now and where to check it. So far every one came from our own audits, when we set a claim against the report its utility actually publishes.
WHAT IT SAID
The pure-water systems article listed Chicago among soft-water cities, and the hard-water spots article said Chicago has some of the hardest tap water of any major city.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Both removed. The City of Chicago Department of Water Management publishes 126–143 mg/L, which is hard, and ranks 67th of the 185 cities we rank: neither soft nor near the top.
WHAT IT SAID
The Texas Hill Country, Mid-South Tennessee and Kentucky guides quoted hardness readings for private wells that no survey or utility report we could find supports.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Those readings are cut. Where the guides still give a hardness figure for a covered city, it is the one that city’s utility publishes, and a build test checks it.
Texas Hill Country guide · Mid-South Tennessee guide · Kentucky guide
WHAT IT SAID
The Texas water page said Austin runs 200–240 mg/L, Houston 180–220 and San Antonio 350–400.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Replaced with what each utility publishes: Austin Water 70–126 mg/L, Houston Public Works 44–229, San Antonio Water System 257–342.
WHAT IT SAID
The Montana guide and state summary said Missoula is supplied by Mountain Water Company.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Missoula Water, run by the City of Missoula, which took over the private water company in 2017.
WHAT IT SAID
About 450 sentences across the 50 state guides gave hardness ranges that were our own planning estimates, not figures any utility publishes. The Maine guide put Bangor at 130 to 200 mg/L; the Illinois guide said everywhere outside Chicago has harder water.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Each sentence now carries the named city’s published figure or was cut. Bangor Water District publishes 5.3 mg/L, the softest of the 185 cities we rank. In Illinois, Springfield (80–142 mg/L) is softer than Chicago (126–143), so that claim is gone.
WHAT IT SAID
The Alaska summary called Anchorage’s water among the softest in the country; the Missouri summary said St. Louis is softer than Kansas City.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Anchorage’s utility publishes 82–159 mg/L, moderately hard. St. Louis publishes 80–206 mg/L against KC Water’s 100, so St. Louis runs harder. Band words on state pages are now checked against the published figures by a build test.
WHAT IT SAID
On 38 of 50 state pages the summary quoted hardness ranges for named cities that were planning estimates. Maine’s said Portland runs 80–160 mg/L; Texas’s called the state’s water the hardest residential water in the lower 48.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Every figure is out of the summaries. The Maine utilities we cover publish 5.3–17 mg/L. The Texas ones publish 44–342 mg/L, and the hardest figure among the 185 cities we rank belongs to Sioux City, Iowa.
WHAT IT SAID
Each state water page showed our planning range as if it were measured — Texas read “180–600 mg/L typical municipal”.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
The headline is the range the state’s covered utilities publish, labelled PUBLISHED RANGE. Hawaii, Mississippi and Rhode Island, where none publishes a figure, show a range labelled as a planning estimate.
WHAT IT SAID
The scorer labelled its ZIP answers “utility-level data” and credited a “USGS Water Hardness Survey 2023” with ±20 mg/L accuracy. No such survey supports those numbers.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
A ZIP in a city we cover shows its utility’s published figure, with the utility named. Other ZIPs are labelled as estimates, not utility figures. The USGS credit is removed.
WHAT IT SAID
The air panel on the five Utah city pages gave the Pacific Ocean, over 920 km away, as the nearest salt water.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Salt Lake City, West Valley City and West Jordan now show the Great Salt Lake shore at 7.7, 13.2 and 22.7 km. The lake is hypersaline, so it gets its own card beside the ocean figure.
WHAT IT SAID
The Delaware state page credited Wilmington’s and Newark’s water to Suez.
WHAT IT SAYS NOW
Both are municipal: the City of Wilmington Department of Public Works and the City of Newark Water Department, as their own water reports say. Veolia Water Delaware (formerly Suez) and Artesian serve other parts of the state.
Found something we should add here? Write to corrections@windowwashingguide.com with the page and the source that disagrees. How we handle it is set out in our editorial standards; how a figure’s edition is chosen is in the methodology.