How hard is the water in Morris County, TX?

3.5 grains per gallon

Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.

The median hardness measured in Morris County, TX is 60 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 3.5 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 63 samples at 2 sites between 1991 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 3.1 and 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: low (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 3.5 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. Because Morris County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.

More on when a softener is not worth it.

From 2.6 to 4.4 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Morris County was 45 mg/L and the hardest 75.7 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.1 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 77 lb of salt a year (2 bags of 40 lb, about $14), 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 $114 a year.

Sizing at 3.5 gpg

Morris County against the rest of Texas

Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Morris County is number 188 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 24% of counties.

Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Morris County: Henderson County (3.3), Jasper County (3.8), Van Zandt County (3.8).