How hard is the water in Allegany County, MD?
12.8 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Allegany County, MD is 219 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.8 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 29 samples at 10 sites between 1990 and 2022, drawn from groundwater wells, which is what most taps and private wells in the county draw on.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 7.1 and 15.7 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 12.8 gpg a softener pays its way here. Before you buy, check the quoted unit's grain capacity against the sizing table below, and ask whether it regenerates on demand, which uses less salt than a timer. Call your utility for its own report if you are on city water. Because Allegany County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 4.1 to 75.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Allegany County was 70.2 mg/L and the hardest 1,290 mg/L, an 18-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.1 gpg.
Wells 12.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 7.6 gpg
29 groundwater samples from 10 wells put the median at 218.5 mg/L. 154 surface samples from 5 sites put it at 130 mg/L. In Allegany County the wells come out 5.2 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 279 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $50), and roughly 2,346 gallons of regeneration water. Installed, most units run $1,000 to $4,500; spread over 15 years with salt, that is about $150 a year.
Sizing at 12.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 768 | 24,000 | 93 lb |
| 2 | 1,536 | 24,000 | 187 lb |
| 4 | 3,072 | 24,000 | 374 lb |
| 6 | 4,608 | 40,000 | 561 lb |
Allegany County against the rest of Maryland
Among the 24 Maryland counties with data, Allegany County is number 2 of 24 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 61% of counties.
Softest in Maryland: Charles County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Washington County at 18.5 gpg. Closest to Allegany County: Frederick County (9), Baltimore city (7.6), Calvert County (7.5).