How hard is the water in Butler County, KY?
8.3 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Butler County, KY is 142 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.3 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 221 samples at 5 sites between 1992 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 7.4 and 8.4 gpg. The whole middle of that range gives the same answer, so a test of your own tap is unlikely to change it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 8.3 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 6.8 to 19.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Butler County was 116 mg/L and the hardest 339 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.4 gpg.
Wells 19.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 7.8 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 339 mg/L. 220 surface samples from 4 sites put it at 134 mg/L. In Butler County the wells come out 12.0 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 181 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $33), 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 $133 a year.
Sizing at 8.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 498 | 24,000 | 61 lb |
| 2 | 996 | 24,000 | 121 lb |
| 4 | 1,992 | 24,000 | 242 lb |
| 6 | 2,988 | 24,000 | 364 lb |
Butler County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Butler County is number 52 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 44% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Butler County: Estill County (8.3), Daviess County (8.1), Larue County (8.1).