How hard is the water in Howell County, MO?
14.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Howell County, MO is 249 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 7 samples at 7 sites between 1993 and 2026, 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 12.8 and 14.9 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 14.5 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 12.2 to 16.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Howell County was 208 mg/L and the hardest 281 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.8 gpg.
Wells 14.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.6 gpg
7 groundwater samples from 7 wells put the median at 249 mg/L. 21 surface samples from 11 sites put it at 164 mg/L. In Howell County the wells come out 4.9 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 318 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $57), 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 $157 a year.
Sizing at 14.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 870 | 24,000 | 106 lb |
| 2 | 1,740 | 24,000 | 212 lb |
| 4 | 3,480 | 32,000 | 423 lb |
| 6 | 5,220 | 40,000 | 635 lb |
Howell County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Howell County is number 23 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 68% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Howell County: Pulaski County (14.5), Caldwell County (14.7), Ray County (14).