How hard is the water in Logan County, WV?
5.4 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Logan County, WV is 93 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 5.4 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 7 samples at 7 sites between 2011 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 3.9 and 6 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 5.4 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.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 2.0 to 7.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Logan County was 33.4 mg/L and the hardest 125 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.9 gpg.
Wells 5.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 26 gpg
7 groundwater samples from 7 wells put the median at 93 mg/L. 2 surface samples from 2 sites put it at 445 mg/L. In Logan County the rivers and lakes come out 20.6 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 119 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $21), 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 $121 a year.
Sizing at 5.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 324 | 24,000 | 39 lb |
| 2 | 648 | 24,000 | 79 lb |
| 4 | 1,296 | 24,000 | 158 lb |
| 6 | 1,944 | 24,000 | 237 lb |
Logan County against the rest of West Virginia
Among the 54 West Virginia counties with data, Logan County is number 38 of 54 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 32% of counties.
Softest in West Virginia: Calhoun County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 20.4 gpg. Closest to Logan County: Jackson County (5.4), Hardy County (5.5), Mercer County (5.5).