How hard is the water in Crawford County, MO?
10.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Crawford County, MO is 186 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 6 samples at 6 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 9.3 and 12.2 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 10.9 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 Crawford 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 7.9 to 13.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Crawford County was 136 mg/L and the hardest 232 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.3 gpg.
Wells 10.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 11.7 gpg
6 groundwater samples from 6 wells put the median at 186 mg/L. 366 surface samples from 25 sites put it at 200 mg/L. In Crawford County the rivers and lakes come out 0.8 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 237 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $43), 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 $143 a year.
Sizing at 10.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 654 | 24,000 | 80 lb |
| 2 | 1,308 | 24,000 | 159 lb |
| 4 | 2,616 | 24,000 | 318 lb |
| 6 | 3,924 | 32,000 | 477 lb |
Crawford County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Crawford County is number 76 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 54% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Crawford County: Bates County (10.9), Lafayette County (10.9), Atchison County (11).