How hard is the water in Harrison County, IN?
11.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Harrison County, IN is 194 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 139 samples at 9 sites between 1999 and 2019, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 9.8 and 13 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 11.3 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 Harrison 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 8.2 to 17.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Harrison County was 140 mg/L and the hardest 302 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 13 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.8 gpg.
Wells 15.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 10.2 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 262 mg/L. 137 surface samples from 7 sites put it at 175 mg/L. In Harrison County the wells come out 5.1 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 248 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $45), 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 $145 a year.
Sizing at 11.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 678 | 24,000 | 82 lb |
| 2 | 1,356 | 24,000 | 165 lb |
| 4 | 2,712 | 24,000 | 330 lb |
| 6 | 4,068 | 32,000 | 495 lb |
Harrison County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Harrison County is number 72 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 56% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Harrison County: Jennings County (11.3), Jackson County (11.4), Orange County (11.1).