How hard is the water in Clarke County, VA?
20.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Clarke County, VA is 344 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 20.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 14 samples at 12 sites between 1993 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 18.7 and 23.1 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 20.1 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 3.8 to 25.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Clarke County was 65.4 mg/L and the hardest 433 mg/L, a 7-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 23.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.7 gpg.
Wells 20.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.5 gpg
14 groundwater samples from 12 wells put the median at 344 mg/L. 126 surface samples from 11 sites put it at 248 mg/L. In Clarke County the wells come out 5.6 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 439 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $79), 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 $179 a year.
Sizing at 20.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,206 | 24,000 | 147 lb |
| 2 | 2,412 | 24,000 | 293 lb |
| 4 | 4,824 | 40,000 | 587 lb |
| 6 | 7,236 | 64,000 | 880 lb |
Clarke County against the rest of Virginia
Among the 126 Virginia counties with data, Clarke County is the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 84% of counties.
Softest in Virginia: Isle of Wight County at 0.4 gpg. Closest to Clarke County: Shenandoah County (19), Mathews County (18.8), Winchester city (18.3).