How hard is the water in Greene County, IN?
15.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Greene County, IN is 259 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 9 samples at 7 sites between 1991 and 2004, 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 11.7 and 18.1 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 15.1 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 7.2 to 20.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Greene County was 123 mg/L and the hardest 354 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 18.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.7 gpg.
Wells 15.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.4 gpg
9 groundwater samples from 7 wells put the median at 259 mg/L. 245 surface samples from 29 sites put it at 280 mg/L. In Greene County the rivers and lakes come out 1.3 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 330 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $59), 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 $159 a year.
Sizing at 15.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 906 | 24,000 | 110 lb |
| 2 | 1,812 | 24,000 | 220 lb |
| 4 | 3,624 | 32,000 | 441 lb |
| 6 | 5,436 | 40,000 | 661 lb |
Greene County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Greene County is number 61 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 70% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Greene County: Knox County (15.2), Sullivan County (15.2), Wabash County (15.3).