How hard is the water in Saginaw County, MI?
14.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Saginaw County, MI is 250 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 409 samples at 9 sites between 1990 and 2015, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 13.7 and 16.6 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 14.6 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 12.9 to 56.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Saginaw County was 220 mg/L and the hardest 973 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.7 gpg.
Wells 46.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.3 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 788.5 mg/L. 407 surface samples from 7 sites put it at 244 mg/L. In Saginaw County the wells come out 31.8 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 319 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $57), 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 $157 a year.
Sizing at 14.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 876 | 24,000 | 107 lb |
| 2 | 1,752 | 24,000 | 213 lb |
| 4 | 3,504 | 32,000 | 426 lb |
| 6 | 5,256 | 40,000 | 639 lb |
Saginaw County against the rest of Michigan
Among the 82 Michigan counties with data, Saginaw County is number 22 of 82 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 68% of counties.
Softest in Michigan: Luce County at 1.9 gpg. Hardest: Wayne County at 47.4 gpg. Closest to Saginaw County: St. Clair County (14.8), Huron County (14.2), Sanilac County (15).