How hard is the water in Leflore County, MS?
13 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Leflore County, MS is 223 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 32 samples at 22 sites between 1992 and 2020, 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 3 and 14.8 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 13 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 Leflore 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 0.1 to 24.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Leflore County was 1 mg/L and the hardest 424 mg/L, a 424-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 13 gpg, rivers and lakes 3.7 gpg
32 groundwater samples from 22 wells put the median at 223.3 mg/L. 28 surface samples from 5 sites put it at 63.2 mg/L. In Leflore County the wells come out 9.3 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 285 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $51), 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 $151 a year.
Sizing at 13 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 780 | 24,000 | 95 lb |
| 2 | 1,560 | 24,000 | 190 lb |
| 4 | 3,120 | 24,000 | 380 lb |
| 6 | 4,680 | 40,000 | 569 lb |
Leflore County against the rest of Mississippi
Among the 78 Mississippi counties with data, Leflore County is number 7 of 78 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 62% of counties.
Softest in Mississippi: Issaquena County at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: Franklin County at 60.5 gpg. Closest to Leflore County: Yazoo County (13.8), Coahoma County (16), Sunflower County (17.2).