How hard is the water in Licking County, OH?
20.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Licking County, OH is 351 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 20.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 82 samples at 27 sites between 1992 and 2024, 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 15.8 and 24.4 gpg. The whole middle of that range gives the same answer, so a test of your own tap is unlikely to change it. Confidence in the county figure: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 20.5 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 10.3 to 34.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Licking County was 176.8 mg/L and the hardest 588 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 24.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 15.8 gpg.
Wells 20.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.3 gpg
82 groundwater samples from 27 wells put the median at 351 mg/L. 450 surface samples from 39 sites put it at 245 mg/L. In Licking County the wells come out 6.2 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 448 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $81), 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 $181 a year.
Sizing at 20.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,230 | 24,000 | 150 lb |
| 2 | 2,460 | 24,000 | 299 lb |
| 4 | 4,920 | 40,000 | 599 lb |
| 6 | 7,380 | 64,000 | 898 lb |
Licking County against the rest of Ohio
Among the 88 Ohio counties with data, Licking County is number 27 of 88 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 85% of counties.
Softest in Ohio: Scioto County at 5.7 gpg. Hardest: Perry County at 113.3 gpg. Closest to Licking County: Mercer County (20.7), Warren County (20.2), Ross County (20.9).