How hard is the water in Klickitat County, WA?
3.7 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Klickitat County, WA is 63 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 3.7 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 22 samples at 15 sites between 1991 and 2016, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 3.7 and 4.2 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 3.7 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 1.1 to 7.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Klickitat County was 19 mg/L and the hardest 129 mg/L, a 7-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 4.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.7 gpg.
Wells 6.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 3.7 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 113.1 mg/L. 11 surface samples from 11 sites put it at 63.2 mg/L. In Klickitat County the wells come out 2.9 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 81 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $15), 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 $115 a year.
Sizing at 3.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 222 | 24,000 | 27 lb |
| 2 | 444 | 24,000 | 54 lb |
| 4 | 888 | 24,000 | 108 lb |
| 6 | 1,332 | 24,000 | 162 lb |
Klickitat County against the rest of Washington
Among the 38 Washington counties with data, Klickitat County is number 21 of 38 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 25% of counties.
Softest in Washington: Chelan County at 0.6 gpg. Hardest: Island County at 20.7 gpg. Closest to Klickitat County: King County (3.6), San Juan County (3.9), Wahkiakum County (3.3).