How hard is the water in La Crosse County, WI?
12.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in La Crosse County, WI is 210 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 45 samples at 12 sites between 1990 and 2014, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 10.3 and 15.9 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
At 12.3 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. Because La Crosse County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 2.6 to 18.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in La Crosse County was 45.2 mg/L and the hardest 310 mg/L, a 7-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 15.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 12.3 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 272 mg/L. 44 surface samples from 11 sites put it at 210 mg/L. In La Crosse County the wells come out 3.6 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 268 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $48), 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 $148 a year.
Sizing at 12.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 738 | 24,000 | 90 lb |
| 2 | 1,476 | 24,000 | 180 lb |
| 4 | 2,952 | 24,000 | 359 lb |
| 6 | 4,428 | 32,000 | 539 lb |
La Crosse County against the rest of Wisconsin
Among the 72 Wisconsin counties with data, La Crosse County is number 39 of 72 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 59% of counties.
Softest in Wisconsin: Vilas County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Calumet County at 28.4 gpg. Closest to La Crosse County: Pepin County (12.3), Waushara County (12.6), Columbia County (12.9).