How hard is the water in Harrison County, WV?
8.6 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Harrison County, WV is 148 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.6 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 6 samples at 6 sites between 1996 and 2014, 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 5.6 and 12.9 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 8.6 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 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 0.8 to 19.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Harrison County was 12.9 mg/L and the hardest 339 mg/L, a 26-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.6 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 8.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 20.9 gpg
6 groundwater samples from 6 wells put the median at 148 mg/L. 14 surface samples from 12 sites put it at 358.3 mg/L. In Harrison County the rivers and lakes come out 12.3 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer 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 189 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $34), 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 $134 a year.
Sizing at 8.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 516 | 24,000 | 63 lb |
| 2 | 1,032 | 24,000 | 126 lb |
| 4 | 2,064 | 24,000 | 251 lb |
| 6 | 3,096 | 24,000 | 377 lb |
Harrison County against the rest of West Virginia
Among the 54 West Virginia counties with data, Harrison County is number 14 of 54 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 45% of counties.
Softest in West Virginia: Calhoun County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 20.4 gpg. Closest to Harrison County: Grant County (8.7), Monongalia County (8.5), Wood County (9.2).