How hard is the water in Franklin County, MS?
60.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Franklin County, MS is 1035 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 60.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 22 samples at 11 sites between 1990 and 2002, 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 42.8 and 67.9 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 60.5 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 1.7 to 113.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Franklin County was 28.9 mg/L and the hardest 1,945 mg/L, a 67-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 67.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 42.8 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 60.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 0.7 gpg
22 groundwater samples from 11 wells put the median at 1035 mg/L. 19 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 11.3 mg/L. In Franklin County the wells come out 59.8 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 80,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 1,320 lb of salt a year (34 bags of 40 lb, about $238), 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 $338 a year.
Sizing at 60.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3,630 | 32,000 | 442 lb |
| 2 | 7,260 | 64,000 | 883 lb |
| 4 | 14,520 | twin tank | 1,767 lb |
| 6 | 21,780 | twin tank | 2,650 lb |
Franklin County against the rest of Mississippi
Among the 78 Mississippi counties with data, Franklin County is the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 98% of counties.
Softest in Mississippi: Issaquena County at 0.1 gpg. Closest to Franklin County: Sharkey County (33.3), Washington County (22.5), Sunflower County (17.2).