How hard is the water in Chicot County, AR?
17.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Chicot County, AR is 296 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 17.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 27 samples at 14 sites between 1991 and 2026, 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 10.5 and 39.7 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 17.3 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 Chicot 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 0.2 to 73.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Chicot County was 3.1 mg/L and the hardest 1,250 mg/L, a 403-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 39.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.5 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 17.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 6 gpg
27 groundwater samples from 14 wells put the median at 295.5 mg/L. 180 surface samples from 15 sites put it at 102 mg/L. In Chicot County the wells come out 11.3 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 377 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $68), 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 $168 a year.
Sizing at 17.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,038 | 24,000 | 126 lb |
| 2 | 2,076 | 24,000 | 253 lb |
| 4 | 4,152 | 32,000 | 505 lb |
| 6 | 6,228 | 48,000 | 758 lb |
Chicot County against the rest of Arkansas
Among the 75 Arkansas counties with data, Chicot County is number 8 of 75 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 77% of counties.
Softest in Arkansas: Hempstead County at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: Prairie County at 23.9 gpg. Closest to Chicot County: Cross County (16.9), St. Francis County (18.3), Poinsett County (18.4).