How hard is the water in Pulaski County, AR?
9.5 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Pulaski County, AR is 163 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 9.5 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 63 samples at 26 sites between 1990 and 2026, 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 1.9 and 12.5 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 9.5 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 Pulaski 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 0.1 to 18.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Pulaski County was 2 mg/L and the hardest 310 mg/L, a 155-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 1.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 9.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 1.3 gpg
63 groundwater samples from 26 wells put the median at 162.8 mg/L. 3,108 surface samples from 66 sites put it at 22.2 mg/L. In Pulaski County the wells come out 8.2 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 208 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $37), 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 $137 a year.
Sizing at 9.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 570 | 24,000 | 69 lb |
| 2 | 1,140 | 24,000 | 139 lb |
| 4 | 2,280 | 24,000 | 277 lb |
| 6 | 3,420 | 24,000 | 416 lb |
Pulaski County against the rest of Arkansas
Among the 75 Arkansas counties with data, Pulaski County is number 22 of 75 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 49% of counties.
Softest in Arkansas: Hempstead County at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: Prairie County at 23.9 gpg. Closest to Pulaski County: Baxter County (9.9), Searcy County (10.3), Izard County (10.3).