How hard is the water in Evangeline Parish, LA?
9.4 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Evangeline Parish, LA is 161 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 9.4 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 24 samples at 17 sites between 1995 and 2024, 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 6.3 and 15.8 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 9.4 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 Evangeline 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 28.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Evangeline Parish was 1.9 mg/L and the hardest 484 mg/L, a 255-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 6.3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 9.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 1.7 gpg
24 groundwater samples from 17 wells put the median at 161 mg/L. 141 surface samples from 8 sites put it at 28.8 mg/L. In Evangeline Parish the wells come out 7.7 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 205 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $37), 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 $137 a year.
Sizing at 9.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 564 | 24,000 | 69 lb |
| 2 | 1,128 | 24,000 | 137 lb |
| 4 | 2,256 | 24,000 | 274 lb |
| 6 | 3,384 | 24,000 | 412 lb |
Evangeline Parish against the rest of Louisiana
Among the 64 Louisiana counties with data, Evangeline Parish is number 25 of 64 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 49% of counties.
Softest in Louisiana: Lincoln Parish at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: St. Bernard Parish at 53.9 gpg. Closest to Evangeline Parish: Jefferson Davis Parish (9.3), Lafourche Parish (9), St. James Parish (8.6).