How hard is the water in Mifflin County, PA?
19.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Mifflin County, PA is 334 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 7 samples at 7 sites between 1993 and 2026, 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 21.4 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 19.5 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 11.8 to 24.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Mifflin County was 202 mg/L and the hardest 425 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 21.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 15.8 gpg.
Wells 19.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 8.1 gpg
7 groundwater samples from 7 wells put the median at 334 mg/L. 894 surface samples from 91 sites put it at 139.5 mg/L. In Mifflin County the wells come out 11.4 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 426 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $77), 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 $177 a year.
Sizing at 19.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,170 | 24,000 | 142 lb |
| 2 | 2,340 | 24,000 | 285 lb |
| 4 | 4,680 | 40,000 | 569 lb |
| 6 | 7,020 | 64,000 | 854 lb |
Mifflin County against the rest of Pennsylvania
Among the 67 Pennsylvania counties with data, Mifflin County is number 10 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 83% of counties.
Softest in Pennsylvania: Cameron County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarion County at 68.2 gpg. Closest to Mifflin County: Lancaster County (19), Butler County (18.3), Centre County (18.1).