How hard is the water in Macoupin County, IL?
13.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Macoupin County, IL is 234 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 137 samples at 17 sites between 1990 and 2003, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 7 and 16.4 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 13.6 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 Macoupin 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 4.7 to 37.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Macoupin County was 80.5 mg/L and the hardest 646 mg/L, an 8-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7 gpg.
Wells 27.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 10 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 476.5 mg/L. 135 surface samples from 15 sites put it at 171 mg/L. In Macoupin County the wells come out 17.8 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 298 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $54), 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 $154 a year.
Sizing at 13.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 816 | 24,000 | 99 lb |
| 2 | 1,632 | 24,000 | 199 lb |
| 4 | 3,264 | 24,000 | 397 lb |
| 6 | 4,896 | 40,000 | 596 lb |
Macoupin County against the rest of Illinois
Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Macoupin County is number 77 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 65% of counties.
Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Macoupin County: Shelby County (13.7), Effingham County (13.8), Monroe County (13.8).