How hard is the water in Lawrence County, IN?
12.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Lawrence County, IN is 213 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 731 samples at 22 sites between 1991 and 2019, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 6.8 and 14.6 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
At 12.4 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 Lawrence 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 4.0 to 18.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lawrence County was 68.5 mg/L and the hardest 319 mg/L, a 5-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 6.8 gpg.
Wells 18.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 11.9 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 312.5 mg/L. 729 surface samples from 20 sites put it at 204.5 mg/L. In Lawrence County the wells come out 6.4 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 272 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $49), 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 $149 a year.
Sizing at 12.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 744 | 24,000 | 91 lb |
| 2 | 1,488 | 24,000 | 181 lb |
| 4 | 2,976 | 24,000 | 362 lb |
| 6 | 4,464 | 32,000 | 543 lb |
Lawrence County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Lawrence County is number 70 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 60% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Lawrence County: Jasper County (13.2), Noble County (13.4), Owen County (13.4).