How hard is the water in Marion County, WV?
7.9 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Marion County, WV is 136 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.9 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 20 samples at 10 sites between 1990 and 2021, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 4.5 and 8.8 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 7.9 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Marion 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 1.1 to 16.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Marion County was 19.5 mg/L and the hardest 276 mg/L, a 14-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.5 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 6.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 8.1 gpg
4 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 107.8 mg/L. 16 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 138 mg/L. In Marion County the rivers and lakes come out 1.8 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 174 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $31), 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 $131 a year.
Sizing at 7.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 474 | 24,000 | 58 lb |
| 2 | 948 | 24,000 | 115 lb |
| 4 | 1,896 | 24,000 | 231 lb |
| 6 | 2,844 | 24,000 | 346 lb |
Marion County against the rest of West Virginia
Among the 54 West Virginia counties with data, Marion County is number 16 of 54 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 42% of counties.
Softest in West Virginia: Calhoun County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 20.4 gpg. Closest to Marion County: Wirt County (7.7), Monongalia County (8.5), Pocahontas County (7.4).