How hard is the water in Clarke County, GA?

1.6 grains per gallon

You do not need a softener here.

The median hardness measured in Clarke County, GA is 28 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 1.6 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 343 samples at 33 sites between 2001 and 2026, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 1.1 and 9.3 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 1.6 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Clarke County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one. Because Clarke County 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 0.6 to 22.2 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Clarke County was 11 mg/L and the hardest 380 mg/L, a 35-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 9.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 1.1 gpg. So even in a soft county, a handful of wells here produce water hard enough to scale a heater.

Clarke County against the rest of Georgia

Among the 159 Georgia counties with data, Clarke County is number 64 of 159 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 13% of counties.

Softest in Georgia: Richmond County at 0.2 gpg. Hardest: Glynn County at 13.6 gpg. Closest to Clarke County: Johnson County (1.6), Long County (1.6), Muscogee County (1.6).