How hard is the water in Lewis County, WV?
5.8 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Lewis County, WV is 99 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 5.8 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 5 samples at 5 sites between 1997 and 2012, 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 11.5 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 5.8 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. Because Lewis County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 2.2 to 17.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lewis County was 38.3 mg/L and the hardest 307 mg/L, an 8-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 11.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.1 gpg.
Wells 5.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.3 gpg
5 groundwater samples from 5 wells put the median at 98.7 mg/L. 5 surface samples from 4 sites put it at 160 mg/L. In Lewis County the rivers and lakes come out 3.5 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer 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 126 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $23), 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 $123 a year.
Sizing at 5.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 348 | 24,000 | 42 lb |
| 2 | 696 | 24,000 | 85 lb |
| 4 | 1,392 | 24,000 | 169 lb |
| 6 | 2,088 | 24,000 | 254 lb |
Lewis County against the rest of West Virginia
Among the 54 West Virginia counties with data, Lewis County is number 33 of 54 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 34% of counties.
Softest in West Virginia: Calhoun County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 20.4 gpg. Closest to Lewis County: Morgan County (5.8), Taylor County (5.7), Hancock County (5.9).