How hard is the water in Iberia Parish, LA?
14 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Iberia Parish, LA is 239 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 14 samples at 14 sites between 1993 and 2023, 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 11.9 and 22.5 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 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 0.0 to 25.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Iberia Parish was 0.7 mg/L and the hardest 439 mg/L, a 627-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 22.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 14 gpg, rivers and lakes 7.9 gpg
14 groundwater samples from 14 wells put the median at 239 mg/L. 469 surface samples from 12 sites put it at 135.5 mg/L. In Iberia Parish the wells come out 6.1 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 305 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $55), 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 $155 a year.
Sizing at 14 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 840 | 24,000 | 102 lb |
| 2 | 1,680 | 24,000 | 204 lb |
| 4 | 3,360 | 24,000 | 409 lb |
| 6 | 5,040 | 40,000 | 613 lb |
Iberia Parish against the rest of Louisiana
Among the 64 Louisiana counties with data, Iberia Parish is number 18 of 64 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 66% of counties.
Softest in Louisiana: Lincoln Parish at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: St. Bernard Parish at 53.9 gpg. Closest to Iberia Parish: Acadia Parish (13.1), Plaquemines Parish (13), St. Landry Parish (15).