How hard is the water in Clark County, IN?
7.4 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Clark County, IN is 127 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.4 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 21 samples at 9 sites between 2000 and 2019, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 5.7 and 9.1 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 7.4 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. Because Clark 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 3.3 to 18.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Clark County was 57 mg/L and the hardest 320 mg/L, a 6-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 9.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.7 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 18.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 7.2 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 320 mg/L. 20 surface samples from 8 sites put it at 123.5 mg/L. In Clark County the wells come out 11.5 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 162 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $29), 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 $129 a year.
Sizing at 7.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 444 | 24,000 | 54 lb |
| 2 | 888 | 24,000 | 108 lb |
| 4 | 1,776 | 24,000 | 216 lb |
| 6 | 2,664 | 24,000 | 324 lb |
Clark County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Clark County is number 87 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 40% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Clark County: Dubois County (7.1), Floyd County (6.5), Washington County (8.9).