How hard is the water in Keokuk County, IA?

19 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Keokuk County, IA is 325 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 18 samples at 8 sites between 1990 and 2017, 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 17.3 and 27.6 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 19 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 9.9 to 84.7 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Keokuk County was 169 mg/L and the hardest 1,450 mg/L, a 9-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 27.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.3 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 415 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $75), 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 $175 a year.

Sizing at 19 gpg

Keokuk County against the rest of Iowa

Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Keokuk County is number 54 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 81% of counties.

Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Keokuk County: Allamakee County (19), Franklin County (19), Dubuque County (18.7).