State and local jurisdictions have been legally restricting or even completely banning salt based water softeners since the 1990's. Some think these bans are a  "California" problem but this is not the case. Many other states and municipalities are also implementing salt softener controls and they continue to spread across the country still today.

If you live somewhere with hard water but salt softeners are banned Cascadian's PolyHalt salt free ion bond softeners are a legal solution.