How hard is the water in Livingston County, NY?
15.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Livingston County, NY is 268 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 17 samples at 17 sites between 1990 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 11.8 and 25 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 15.7 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 2.7 to 101.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Livingston County was 46.1 mg/L and the hardest 1,740 mg/L, a 38-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 25 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.8 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 15.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.7 gpg
17 groundwater samples from 17 wells put the median at 268 mg/L. 16 surface samples from 3 sites put it at 166 mg/L. In Livingston County the wells come out 6.0 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 342 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $62), 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 $162 a year.
Sizing at 15.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 942 | 24,000 | 115 lb |
| 2 | 1,884 | 24,000 | 229 lb |
| 4 | 3,768 | 32,000 | 458 lb |
| 6 | 5,652 | 40,000 | 688 lb |
Livingston County against the rest of New York
Among the 61 New York counties with data, Livingston County is number 14 of 61 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 71% of counties.
Softest in New York: Suffolk County at 1.6 gpg. Hardest: New York County at 161.1 gpg. Closest to Livingston County: Ontario County (15.1), Cortland County (14.3), Steuben County (14.1).