How hard is the water in Caddo Parish, LA?

2.6 grains per gallon

You do not need a softener here.

The median hardness measured in Caddo Parish, LA is 45 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 2.6 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 242 samples at 75 sites between 1990 and 2024, 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 0.9 and 22.8 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: high (how it is measured).

What to do next

You can skip the softener. At 2.6 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Caddo Parish says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one. Because Caddo Parish straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.

More on when a softener is not worth it.

From 0.2 to 227.2 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Caddo Parish was 3.4 mg/L and the hardest 3,890 mg/L, a 1,144-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 22.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 0.9 gpg. So even in a soft county, a handful of wells here produce water hard enough to scale a heater.

Wells 2.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.2 gpg

242 groundwater samples from 75 wells put the median at 44.9 mg/L. 744 surface samples from 32 sites put it at 37 mg/L. In Caddo Parish the wells come out 0.4 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.

Caddo Parish against the rest of Louisiana

Among the 64 Louisiana counties with data, Caddo Parish is number 41 of 64 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 20% of counties.

Softest in Louisiana: Lincoln Parish at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: St. Bernard Parish at 53.9 gpg. Closest to Caddo Parish: Livingston Parish (2.3), Webster Parish (1.6), Ouachita Parish (1.6).