How hard is the water in Multnomah County, OR?
8.7 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Multnomah County, OR is 149 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.7 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 598 samples at 129 sites between 1990 and 2025, 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 6 and 19.9 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 8.7 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 Multnomah 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 1.8 to 116.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Multnomah County was 30 mg/L and the hardest 1,985 mg/L, a 66-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 19.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 6 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 8.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.5 gpg
598 groundwater samples from 129 wells put the median at 149 mg/L. 1,233 surface samples from 60 sites put it at 43.4 mg/L. In Multnomah County the wells come out 6.2 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 190 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $34), 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 $134 a year.
Sizing at 8.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 522 | 24,000 | 64 lb |
| 2 | 1,044 | 24,000 | 127 lb |
| 4 | 2,088 | 24,000 | 254 lb |
| 6 | 3,132 | 24,000 | 381 lb |
Multnomah County against the rest of Oregon
Among the 36 Oregon counties with data, Multnomah County is number 8 of 36 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 46% of counties.
Softest in Oregon: Columbia County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Malheur County at 17.8 gpg. Closest to Multnomah County: Yamhill County (9), Washington County (8.3), Umatilla County (7.9).