How hard is the water in Orleans Parish, LA?
44.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Orleans Parish, LA is 755 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 44.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 617 samples at 29 sites between 1994 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 27.8 and 52.6 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 44.1 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 13.8 to 122.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Orleans Parish was 236 mg/L and the hardest 2,090 mg/L, a 9-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 52.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 27.8 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 64,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 963 lb of salt a year (25 bags of 40 lb, about $173), 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 $273 a year.
Sizing at 44.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,646 | 24,000 | 322 lb |
| 2 | 5,292 | 40,000 | 644 lb |
| 4 | 10,584 | 80,000 | 1,288 lb |
| 6 | 15,876 | twin tank | 1,932 lb |
Orleans Parish against the rest of Louisiana
Among the 64 Louisiana counties with data, Orleans Parish is number 2 of 64 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 97% of counties.
Softest in Louisiana: Lincoln Parish at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: St. Bernard Parish at 53.9 gpg. Closest to Orleans Parish: Cameron Parish (36), St. Bernard Parish (53.9), Grant Parish (28.4).