How hard is the water in Lackawanna County, PA?
8.3 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Lackawanna County, PA is 142 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.3 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 11 samples at 9 sites between 1993 and 2026, 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 4.1 and 8.5 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 8.3 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Lackawanna 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 3.2 to 24.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lackawanna County was 54.2 mg/L and the hardest 421 mg/L, an 8-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.1 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 8.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 2 gpg
11 groundwater samples from 9 wells put the median at 142 mg/L. 425 surface samples from 22 sites put it at 33.8 mg/L. In Lackawanna County the wells come out 6.3 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. 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 181 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $33), 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 $133 a year.
Sizing at 8.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 498 | 24,000 | 61 lb |
| 2 | 996 | 24,000 | 121 lb |
| 4 | 1,992 | 24,000 | 242 lb |
| 6 | 2,988 | 24,000 | 364 lb |
Lackawanna County against the rest of Pennsylvania
Among the 67 Pennsylvania counties with data, Lackawanna County is number 33 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 44% of counties.
Softest in Pennsylvania: Cameron County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarion County at 68.2 gpg. Closest to Lackawanna County: Bradford County (8.2), Somerset County (8.5), Jefferson County (8.6).