CreekWell Plumbing & Water Treatment LLC · 928-228-5770 · creekwellplumbing.com
About 15 minutes from Prescott. The water out here is harder than Prescott's, and the difference is big enough to change what you should buy.
The Town of Prescott Valley publishes its hardness, which most utilities do not: 123 mg/L on the main system, about 7.2 grains per gallon, and 165 mg/L, about 9.6 grains, on the separate Mingus West system. That puts the main system just over the USGS line for hard water and Mingus West well over it — and it means two houses a few miles apart genuinely need different equipment.
That gap is not academic. Mingus West at 9.6 gpg is a third harder than the main system, so scale builds faster there: sediment in the bottom of a tank sooner, shower glass clouding sooner. It is the same town and two different machines. It is the clearest example in the county of why the number has to be measured at your address rather than assumed from the town.
| Measure | Published figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness, main system | 123 mg/L, range 114–139 — about 7.2 gpg | Prescott Valley, 2025 |
| Hardness, Mingus West | 165 mg/L — about 9.6 gpg | Prescott Valley, 2025 |
| Arsenic, main system | 7.1 ppb, range 5.7–7.1 | Prescott Valley, 2025 |
| Arsenic, Mingus West | 3.9 ppb | Prescott Valley, 2025 |
| Total dissolved solids | 209 ppm main system, 213 on Mingus West | Prescott Valley, 2025 |
| Nitrate | 2.2 ppm main system, against a limit of 10 | Prescott Valley, 2025 |
Every figure above is reproduced from the linked report. Where a utility does not publish a measurement — hardness is unregulated, so most do not — this table says so rather than printing a number nobody can check.
| County | Yavapai County |
|---|---|
| Population | 51,440 — the Census Bureau estimate for July 1, 2024, about 10% more than in 2020 |
| ZIP codes | 86314, 86315 |
| Elevation | 5,100 feet, by the Town’s own figure |
| From Prescott | About 15 minutes |
These are the problems we see most often in Prescott Valley homes.
Prescott Valley’s water is 100% groundwater, pumped inside the Prescott Active Management Area — the Town’s 2024 water quality report puts it simply: “our water comes from underground aquifers.” Its main-system hardness, 123 mg/L, is about 7 grains per gallon — moderately hard. Arsenic tested up to 7.1 ppb against the 10 ppb federal limit, and nitrate reached 7.1 ppm against a 10 ppm limit in October 2024. Both are compliant, and both are exactly the kind of margin an under-sink reverse osmosis system is built to close at the drinking tap. (The 2025 report, in the table above, has nitrate back down at 2.2.)
The Town says it ran “more than 3,000 tests for over 65 drinking water contaminants” for that report. It also tested all of its wells for PFAS numerous times in 2024 and is “investigating new technologies to remove PFAS” — proactive work worth knowing about. Its PFAS page adds that four of the Town’s wells remain out of service with PFAS above the new EPA standards, and that the system as a whole is compliant.
For the long haul, Prescott Valley co-owns the Big Chino Water Ranch — 4,582 acres west of Paulden — with the City of Prescott, 45.9% to Prescott’s 54.1% (Town of Prescott Valley): a future groundwater supply for both communities. And at around 7 grains, a softener sized from an actual tap reading beats guessing from a county average — the free hardness check that rides with every estimate settles it in five minutes.
On Mingus West water, the sediment layer in the bottom of a tank water heater builds fast enough that annual flushing makes a real difference to how long the unit lasts. An anode rod check at year five is the other cheap intervention. Neither is glamorous and both are worth more than most of what gets sold as an upgrade.
More wells out this way, and a well is a different situation entirely — no annual report, no legal limit, nobody testing it but you. If you are on a well here and have not run a full panel in three years, that is the first thing to do. Arsenic, nitrate and bacteria have no taste, smell or color, and no handheld meter reads any of them.
Dewey-Humboldt, Mayer, Spring Valley and Cordes Lakes are all covered at the same published prices with no trip fee.
Water heaters, drains, leaks and water treatment, at the same flat prices as everywhere else in the county, with the two-year workmanship warranty plus the maker’s or the supplier’s on the parts.
Under-sink, installed: the Kitten at $829 or the alkaline Ocelot at $999. It can reduce arsenic V and nitrate in the water you drink and cook with (not certified; a test of the RO water shows your result). Whole-home RO has its own page.
Detailsfrom $829InstalledCertified lab analysis for your Prescott Valley address — arsenic, lead, uranium, nitrate, bacteria and hardness, 53 parameters. Ordered from SimpleLab; we read the results with you free. (PFAS is a separate $334 test, at SimpleLab’s price.)
Order a kit$185Lab panelBranch drains up to 2 inches and 75 feet, the same flat rate as everywhere else; toilet stoppages too. Main-line cabling and jetting are not offered yet. A leak under the slab? Detection is $450; repairs start at $1,500.
Details$179Flat rateNo hot water, rusty water, or a tank at the end of its life. Tank flush $79, anode rod $245, tankless descaling $250. Replacement, from $1,490 for a tank, is a reference price: it waits for the contractor licenses.
Detailsfrom $79ServiceBurst pipes, slab leaks and water-heater failures in Prescott Valley get a $250 priority call — a same-day visit when Neil is free, Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm.
Details$250Priority callBurst pipes, failed water heaters, slab leaks and no-water calls. Prescott Valley is about 15 minutes from Prescott. If a pipe bursts, shut the main off first — usually where the line enters the house, or at the meter — then call or text Neil at 928-228-5770.
DetailsEvery service priced up front, no surprises, and free on-site estimates for Prescott Valley residents.
See pricingCatalytic carbon for less chlorine taste and odor at every tap — the Lynx Package.
Details$1,885Installed · reference priceLess scale on fixtures and appliances, sized for your own hardness: the Bobcat up to the Tiger 64K. A softener sized for Prescott water is undersized on Mingus West. On chlorinated city water the supplier says to protect the resin from chlorine: a Tiger, with carbon in the same tank, or the Lynx ahead of the Bobcat.
Details$1,799–$3,399Installed · reference priceNot bookable yet. This work comes to $1,000 or more, so it waits for CreekWell’s contractor licenses.
Until its Arizona contractor licenses are issued, CreekWell takes only jobs that come to under $1,000 in all and need no permit and no gas. The price is published so you can plan and compare; it is not an offer, a quote or a bid. What the licenses change
Prescott Valley is young housing stock: roughly three-quarters of its homes (77.7%) went up after 1990, with the biggest wave in 2000–2009 (Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024), and building permits peaked again in 2022 — 1,012 new housing units, the most since 2005 (Census Bureau permit survey). That means almost no galvanized pipe anywhere in town, but the 1980s and early-90s tracts sit squarely in the polybutylene era — roughly 1978 to 1995 — a gray plastic supply pipe worth identifying before it fails. Newer neighborhoods like Pronghorn Ranch, Quailwood, StoneRidge and the homes climbing Glassford Hill are copper and PEX, where the job is protecting the water heater and fixtures from scale rather than replacing pipe.
At 5,100 feet, Prescott Valley shares Prescott’s freeze exposure: NOAA’s 1991–2020 climate normals put Prescott’s airport, Love Field, about six miles north-west of town, at 113 nights a year at or below freezing (NOAA). Hose bibs, backflow preventers, garage softener drains and anything plumbed in an exterior wall need to be installed with that in mind, which is how every loop here gets plumbed. The town has grown about 10% since the 2020 census, and a lot of that new construction came with a pre-plumbed softener loop — two capped pipes in the garage waiting for a system.
Prescott Valley’s water grew out of four separate systems — Upper, Lower, Viewpoint, and Mingus West/Fairgrounds — and the Town’s own service area map still shows all four. Two of them no longer exist. The EPA’s drinking water inventory records the Lower system consolidated in December 2017 and Viewpoint in July 2018, both folded into the main Town system.
So despite what the map and half the internet say, there are two public water systems in Prescott Valley today, and the Town’s 2025 water quality report covers exactly those two: Town of Prescott Valley (#13-048) and Mingus West (#13-247).
That is not trivia, because the two publish different water. The main system is 123 mg/L hardness and Mingus West is 165 — roughly 7.2 against 9.6 grains per gallon once you convert at 17.1 mg/L per grain, a conversion we are doing here because the Town publishes only milligrams. A softener or a cartridge interval sized off the main-system number is undersized if your house is actually on Mingus West. If you were told “you’re on Viewpoint,” that has been the main Town system since 2018.
Outside the Town system the density drops and the wells start. A private well has no annual report, no legal limit applied to it and no required sampling — arsenic, nitrate and bacteria have no taste, smell or color, and no handheld meter reads any of them. Same $185 panel, same prices, no trip fee, all the way out to Cordes Lakes.
SimpleLab’s 53-parameter certified lab panel. You order the kit and take the sample; Neil reads the report with you, free.
Order a kit$185At SimpleLabUnder-sink drinking water, installed, faucet hole included. Bookable now if your water is inside its limits (on a well, iron up to 0.3 ppm, manganese up to 0.1 ppm and arsenic V up to 300 ppb) and the job needs no permit. Drilling granite, quartz or stainless is $50; an Ocelot that needs it waits for the licenses.
Detailsfrom $829InstalledSink, tub, shower and laundry drains up to 2-inch pipe and 75 feet, and toilet stoppages. Main-line cabling is not offered yet.
Details$179Flat rateFlush $79, anode rod $245, valves. Tankless descaling $250.
Detailsfrom $79Flat ratesWhole-house softeners are reference-priced but not currently installed. On water this hard the sizing conversation is worth having anyway — here is why. Drain clearing at $179 means branch drains up to 2 inches and 75 feet; main-line cabling, the sewer camera and hydro jetting are not offered yet.
Yes, for repairs and emergencies under $1,000.
Call or text 928-228-5770, Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm; a priority call gets a same-day visit when Neil is free. Whole-house systems wait for the contractor licenses (what the licenses change).
Somewhat.
The town reports about 7.2 grains per gallon against the city of Prescott's 4.3 to 7.6, and 9.6 on the Mingus West system.
Different basins. Prescott Valley draws on the Agua Fria and Little Chino; Prescott is in the Prescott AMA. The practical effect is faster scale build-up and shorter water heater life, and a softener sized for Prescott water would be undersized in Prescott Valley.
The $185 lab panel, before you buy any equipment.
A private well has no legal limit and no required testing. Arsenic, nitrate and bacteria are invisible and unmeasurable without a laboratory. Everything else is guesswork until you have that report.
Yes, at the same prices with no trip fee.
Cordes Lakes too. Yavapai County is all one service area.
Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm. Neil answers his own phone and calls requests back in the order they came in.
