How hard is the water in Franklin Parish, LA?
15.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Franklin Parish, LA is 269 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 40 samples at 29 sites between 1990 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 11.2 and 21.5 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 15.7 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 4.3 to 60.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Franklin Parish was 73.8 mg/L and the hardest 1,030 mg/L, a 14-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 21.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.2 gpg.
Wells 15.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 3.7 gpg
40 groundwater samples from 29 wells put the median at 269 mg/L. 261 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 63.8 mg/L. In Franklin 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 343 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $62), 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 $162 a year.
Sizing at 15.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 942 | 24,000 | 115 lb |
| 2 | 1,884 | 24,000 | 229 lb |
| 4 | 3,768 | 32,000 | 458 lb |
| 6 | 5,652 | 40,000 | 688 lb |
Franklin Parish against the rest of Louisiana
Among the 64 Louisiana counties with data, Franklin Parish is number 16 of 64 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 71% of counties.
Softest in Louisiana: Lincoln Parish at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: St. Bernard Parish at 53.9 gpg. Closest to Franklin Parish: Concordia Parish (16.1), St. Martin Parish (16.1), St. Landry Parish (15).