How hard is the water in Rush County, IN?
19 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Rush County, IN is 326 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 92 samples at 11 sites between 1994 and 2014, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 17.5 and 19.7 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 19 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 16.1 to 25.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Rush County was 276 mg/L and the hardest 435 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 19.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.5 gpg.
Wells 20.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 17.5 gpg
7 groundwater samples from 3 wells put the median at 356 mg/L. 85 surface samples from 8 sites put it at 300.3 mg/L. In Rush County the wells come out 3.3 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 416 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $75), 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 $175 a year.
Sizing at 19 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,140 | 24,000 | 139 lb |
| 2 | 2,280 | 24,000 | 277 lb |
| 4 | 4,560 | 32,000 | 555 lb |
| 6 | 6,840 | 48,000 | 832 lb |
Rush County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Rush County is number 25 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 82% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Rush County: Blackford County (19), Hendricks County (19.2), Madison County (19.3).