Municipal Water Treatment Systems
We design custom, skid-mounted water treatment for cities, schools, and public facilities, delivering fast installation, minimal disruption to public services, and dependable regulatory compliance.
Municipal and Public Facility Water Treatment Systems
For over 65 years, Robert B. Hill Co. has been engineering custom water treatment for the cities, schools, and public facilities that residents count on every day.
Municipal water treatment has to satisfy regulators, elected officials, and the people who turn on the tap. Whether you are removing PFAS from a city well field or protecting the boilers and ice plant in a community rec center, our engineers design systems built to perform for decades, not budget cycles.
Our Municipal Water Treatment Services
Every community has its own water chemistry, source conditions, and peak demand curve. At Robert B. Hill Co., we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all hardware.
Our engineers visit your site, pull and analyze water samples, and review your existing infrastructure, flow rates, and available mechanical space.
From there, we engineer a system sized to your actual demand, your footprint, and your operators’ day-to-day routine.
Water Softeners for Schools & Municipal Buildings
For a city facility, hard water is a line item, not an inconvenience. Scale in boilers, ice rinks, pool heaters, and dishwashers drives up energy bills, shortens equipment life, and turns planned capital replacements into unplanned emergencies.
We engineer multi-tank, alternating municipal water softener systems that deliver conditioned water without interruption. Twin-tank protection eliminates “hard water bypass” during regeneration, so a school kitchen or an arena chiller never sees untreated water on a Monday morning.
Iron, Manganese & Sediment Filtration for Public Water
Source water changes with the season, the well, and the weather. Our municipal water filtration systems remove iron, manganese, sediment, chlorine, and organic matter before they reach distribution.
Removing those contaminants early protects downstream membranes, softener resin, and plumbing from fouling, and it stops the rusty water and metallic taste complaints that fill up council meetings. Whether the answer is multi-media, greensand, or activated carbon, we specify the media your water actually needs.
Reverse Osmosis Systems for Municipal Facilities
When a public works lab, an aquatic center, or a municipal process needs high-purity water, softening and filtration only go so far.
Our commercial reverse osmosis systems use advanced membrane technology to remove up to 99% of dissolved solids, along with nitrates, sulfates, and bacteria. Cities use them for lab-grade testing water, glassware rinse, humidification, boiler makeup, and drinking water stations where taste and clarity are what residents judge you on.
PFAS Removal & EPA Drinking Water Compliance
EPA drinking water limits for PFAS have moved “forever chemicals” from a monitoring line item to a funded compliance deadline that every public water system has to plan around.
We use specialized ion exchange resin and high-adsorptive granular activated carbon to bring PFAS, nitrates, and other regulated contaminants down below limits. We pilot on your actual water first, so the media you buy is the media that performs, and the results hold up on a compliance report.
Why Robert B. Hill?
See why public works teams trust us!
Trusted by Cities
We have served public water systems and facilities for more than 65 years.
Custom Engineering
We size and build to your real demand — no oversold capacity.
Experienced Local Team
Our team helps you test, size, install, and service the system.
Municipal Water Treatment Systems for Every Type of Public Facility
Our specialists will come to your site, test your water, survey the mechanical space, and build a custom quote for your project.
We work with the following types of municipal facilities:
Public Buildings & Community Facilities
These buildings prioritize predictable operating costs, resident comfort, and infrastructure protection for boilers, chillers, HVAC, and commercial kitchens.
- City Halls & Administrative Offices: Softening and filtration that protects HVAC, water heaters, and building plumbing.
- Schools & School Districts: High-capacity softening for kitchens, locker rooms, and boiler plants across multiple buildings.
- Recreation Centers, Arenas & Aquatic Facilities: Treated water for ice sheets, pool systems, showers, and heavy laundry loads.
Municipal Drinking Water & Public Works Systems
These systems answer to state and federal drinking water rules, and to every resident on the line.
- City Well Houses & Treatment Plants: Iron and manganese removal, PFAS treatment, and pressure filtration sized to peak demand.
- Water Towers & Distribution Systems: Corrosion control and disinfection support that protects aging pipe.
- Public Works & Utility Buildings: Treated water for vehicle wash bays, shop equipment, and maintenance operations.
Parks, Campgrounds & Outdoor Facilities
These sites are seasonal, often remote, and need treatment that runs with minimal daily oversight.
- Parks & Splash Pads: Filtration and disinfection that keeps seasonal water systems safe and open.
- Campgrounds & Public Restrooms: Compact softening and filtration for well-fed sites with variable use.
- Golf Courses & Irrigation Systems: Treatment that protects pumps, valves, and sprinkler heads from scale.
Public Safety & Specialty Facilities
These sites often need compact, point-of-use, or small-footprint installations.
- Fire & Police Stations: Reliable softened water for laundry, decon showers, and apparatus washing.
- Libraries & Community Centers: Point-of-use filtration for drinking fountains and bottle-filling stations.
- Wastewater & Lift Station Facilities: Process and utility water treatment for plant equipment.
Ready to Plan Your Municipal Water Treatment Project?
We know that specifying water treatment on a public budget, with a council and a timeline watching, is a lot to carry. We’re here to help.
Reach out for a no-obligation consultation today.
Municipal Water Treatment FAQ
What EPA rules apply to PFAS in municipal drinking water systems?
The EPA’s national primary drinking water regulation for PFAS sets enforceable limits on several PFAS compounds and requires public water systems to complete initial monitoring, report results to the public, and install treatment where levels exceed those limits. The deadlines are phased, so for most cities the real question is not whether to treat but which budget year the capital has to land in. We help utilities read their monitoring data, pilot PFAS removal media on their own water, and size a system that stays compliant through the next round of rulemaking.
How do skid-mounted systems shorten installation on city projects?
Public facilities rarely have a week of downtime to give. We build, pipe, and wire your system on a custom skid at our own shop, then deliver it as a single assembly. When it arrives it is essentially plug-and-play, which means a shorter shutdown, less on-site labor, fewer trades to coordinate, and less time with a mechanical room torn open. For schools and rec centers, that often means the whole changeover fits inside a summer break or a scheduled closure. Learn more about skid-mounted water treatment systems.
Does our facility still need a water softener if we already have an RO or filtration system?
Usually, yes. Softening is the single most important pretreatment step for reverse osmosis. Hard water minerals like calcium and magnesium, scale and foul expensive RO membranes, and early membrane replacement is a cost nobody budgeted for. Softening first extends membrane life, keeps the RO operating at design efficiency, and protects the rest of your building’s mechanical equipment at the same time. Explore commercial water softeners.
How do we solve iron, manganese, and resident taste complaints?
Rusty water, laundry staining, and a metallic taste are almost always iron and manganese, and they are among the most common complaints a public water system fields. The right fix depends on what form the metals are in and how much is present; options range from oxidation with greensand or pressure filtration to sequestration and ion exchange. We start by testing your actual source water, because two wells in the same city can need two different answers. Getting the media and the backwash cycle right is what keeps the complaints from returning next season and keeps your operators from babysitting the plant.
What is the difference between potable water treatment and process water?
Potable treatment produces water that is safe for the public to drink: disinfected, within regulated contaminant limits, and monitored on a reporting schedule. Process or utility water is treated for what the equipment needs instead, softened for a boiler or ice plant, filtered for a wash bay, or purified by reverse osmosis for a lab bench. Many municipal sites need both on separate loops, and engineering them together is usually cheaper than sizing them twice.