How hard is the water in Kennebec County, ME?
3.4 grains per gallon
You do not need a softener here.
The median hardness measured in Kennebec County, ME is 59 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 3.4 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 58 samples at 44 sites between 1990 and 2011, 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 2.5 and 4.6 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
You can skip the softener. At 3.4 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Kennebec County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one. Because Kennebec 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 0.7 to 20.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Kennebec County was 12 mg/L and the hardest 355 mg/L, a 30-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 4.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 2.5 gpg. So even in a soft county, a handful of wells here produce water hard enough to scale a heater.
Wells 3.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 1.1 gpg
58 groundwater samples from 44 wells put the median at 59 mg/L. 51 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 18 mg/L. In Kennebec County the wells come out 2.3 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
Kennebec County against the rest of Maine
Among the 16 Maine counties with data, Kennebec County is number 7 of 16 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 24% of counties.
Softest in Maine: Lincoln County at 0.7 gpg. Hardest: Penobscot County at 6.9 gpg. Closest to Kennebec County: Somerset County (3.5), Waldo County (3.5), Franklin County (3.2).