How hard is the water in Clarion County, PA?
68.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Clarion County, PA is 1168 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 68.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 503 samples at 76 sites between 1990 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 31 and 104 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 68.2 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 1.7 to 237.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Clarion County was 28.5 mg/L and the hardest 4,070 mg/L, a 143-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 104 gpg and the bottom quarter below 31 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 68.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 5.8 gpg
503 groundwater samples from 76 wells put the median at 1167.5 mg/L. 810 surface samples from 31 sites put it at 99 mg/L. In Clarion County the wells come out 62.4 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. 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, the water is harder than a standard single tank handles in a week, so plan on a larger or twin-tank unit. Expect about 1,490 lb of salt a year (38 bags of 40 lb, about $268), 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 $368 a year.
Sizing at 68.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4,092 | 32,000 | 498 lb |
| 2 | 8,184 | 64,000 | 996 lb |
| 4 | 16,368 | twin tank | 1,991 lb |
| 6 | 24,552 | twin tank | 2,987 lb |
Clarion County against the rest of Pennsylvania
Among the 67 Pennsylvania counties with data, Clarion County is the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 99% of counties.
Softest in Pennsylvania: Cameron County at 1.4 gpg. Closest to Clarion County: Greene County (62.5), Clearfield County (38.5), Armstrong County (31.7).