How hard is the water in Perry County, MO?
13.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Perry County, MO is 230 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 281 samples at 10 sites between 2006 and 2024, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 11.2 and 15.4 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 13.5 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 8.3 to 17.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Perry County was 142 mg/L and the hardest 295 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.2 gpg.
Wells 17.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 12.6 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 295 mg/L. 280 surface samples from 9 sites put it at 216 mg/L. In Perry County the wells come out 4.6 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. 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 294 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $53), 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 $153 a year.
Sizing at 13.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 810 | 24,000 | 99 lb |
| 2 | 1,620 | 24,000 | 197 lb |
| 4 | 3,240 | 24,000 | 394 lb |
| 6 | 4,860 | 40,000 | 591 lb |
Perry County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Perry County is number 27 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 64% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Perry County: DeKalb County (13.4), Oregon County (13.4), Carter County (13.3).