How hard is the water in Concordia Parish, LA?
16.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Concordia Parish, LA is 275 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 19 samples at 9 sites between 1990 and 2023, 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 3.1 and 22.7 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 16.1 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. Because Concordia Parish 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 0.1 to 47.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Concordia Parish was 2.2 mg/L and the hardest 819 mg/L, a 372-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 22.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.1 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 16.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 4.1 gpg
19 groundwater samples from 9 wells put the median at 275 mg/L. 421 surface samples from 15 sites put it at 70 mg/L. In Concordia Parish the wells come out 12.0 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 351 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $63), 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 $163 a year.
Sizing at 16.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 966 | 24,000 | 118 lb |
| 2 | 1,932 | 24,000 | 235 lb |
| 4 | 3,864 | 32,000 | 470 lb |
| 6 | 5,796 | 48,000 | 705 lb |
Concordia Parish against the rest of Louisiana
Among the 64 Louisiana counties with data, Concordia Parish is number 15 of 64 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 73% of counties.
Softest in Louisiana: Lincoln Parish at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: St. Bernard Parish at 53.9 gpg. Closest to Concordia Parish: St. Martin Parish (16.1), Franklin Parish (15.7), St. Landry Parish (15).