How hard is the water in Morgan County, IL?
15.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Morgan County, IL is 259 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 25 samples at 9 sites between 1991 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 13.3 and 18.7 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 15.1 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 9.1 to 21.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Morgan County was 156.5 mg/L and the hardest 364 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 18.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.3 gpg.
Wells 18.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 13.7 gpg
3 groundwater samples from 3 wells put the median at 320 mg/L. 22 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 234 mg/L. In Morgan County the wells come out 5.0 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 330 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $59), 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 $159 a year.
Sizing at 15.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 906 | 24,000 | 110 lb |
| 2 | 1,812 | 24,000 | 220 lb |
| 4 | 3,624 | 32,000 | 441 lb |
| 6 | 5,436 | 40,000 | 661 lb |
Morgan County against the rest of Illinois
Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Morgan County is number 66 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 70% of counties.
Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Morgan County: Christian County (15.1), Fayette County (15.1), Brown County (15.2).