How hard is the water in Pemiscot County, MO?
5.7 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Pemiscot County, MO is 98 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 5.7 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 28 samples at 5 sites between 2014 and 2018, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 4.8 and 5.7 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 5.7 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.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 1.3 to 13.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Pemiscot County was 22.5 mg/L and the hardest 227 mg/L, a 10-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 5.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.8 gpg.
Wells 7.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 5.7 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 124.8 mg/L. 26 surface samples from 3 sites put it at 97.8 mg/L. In Pemiscot County the wells come out 1.6 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 125 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $22), 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 $122 a year.
Sizing at 5.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 342 | 24,000 | 42 lb |
| 2 | 684 | 24,000 | 83 lb |
| 4 | 1,368 | 24,000 | 166 lb |
| 6 | 2,052 | 24,000 | 250 lb |
Pemiscot County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Pemiscot County is number 107 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 33% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Pemiscot County: Chariton County (5.8), Linn County (5.1), Andrew County (5.1).