How hard is the water in Humphreys County, MS?
2.3 grains per gallon
You do not need a softener here.
The median hardness measured in Humphreys County, MS is 39 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 2.3 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 10 samples at 5 sites between 1990 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 0.2 and 16 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
You can skip the softener. At 2.3 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Humphreys County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one. Because Humphreys County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 0.1 to 20.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Humphreys County was 2.1 mg/L and the hardest 351 mg/L, a 167-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16 gpg and the bottom quarter below 0.2 gpg. So even in a soft county, a handful of wells here produce water hard enough to scale a heater.
Wells 8.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.3 gpg
4 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 138.5 mg/L. 6 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 38.9 mg/L. In Humphreys County the wells come out 5.8 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.
Humphreys County against the rest of Mississippi
Among the 78 Mississippi counties with data, Humphreys County is number 26 of 78 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 18% of counties.
Softest in Mississippi: Issaquena County at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: Franklin County at 60.5 gpg. Closest to Humphreys County: Attala County (2.2), Monroe County (2.3), Pontotoc County (2.3).