How hard is the water in Natchitoches Parish, LA?
22.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Natchitoches Parish, LA is 389 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 22.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 226 samples at 26 sites between 1990 and 2024, 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 3.9 and 32.5 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 22.7 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. Because Natchitoches Parish 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 0.1 to 168.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Natchitoches Parish was 2.4 mg/L and the hardest 2,890 mg/L, a 1,204-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 32.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 22.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.3 gpg
226 groundwater samples from 26 wells put the median at 389 mg/L. 445 surface samples from 13 sites put it at 39 mg/L. In Natchitoches Parish the wells come out 20.4 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 496 lb of salt a year (13 bags of 40 lb, about $89), 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 $189 a year.
Sizing at 22.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,362 | 24,000 | 166 lb |
| 2 | 2,724 | 24,000 | 331 lb |
| 4 | 5,448 | 40,000 | 663 lb |
| 6 | 8,172 | 64,000 | 994 lb |
Natchitoches Parish against the rest of Louisiana
Among the 64 Louisiana counties with data, Natchitoches Parish is number 7 of 64 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 89% of counties.
Softest in Louisiana: Lincoln Parish at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: St. Bernard Parish at 53.9 gpg. Closest to Natchitoches Parish: Tensas Parish (21.8), Madison Parish (21.6), Rapides Parish (20.8).