How hard is the water in Saline County, IL?
21 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Saline County, IL is 360 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 21 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 395 samples at 17 sites between 1990 and 2004, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 14.2 and 70.1 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 21 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 3.4 to 91.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Saline County was 58.5 mg/L and the hardest 1,565 mg/L, a 27-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 70.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.2 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 459 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $83), 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 $183 a year.
Sizing at 21 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,260 | 24,000 | 153 lb |
| 2 | 2,520 | 24,000 | 307 lb |
| 4 | 5,040 | 40,000 | 613 lb |
| 6 | 7,560 | 64,000 | 920 lb |
Saline County against the rest of Illinois
Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Saline County is number 21 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 86% of counties.
Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Saline County: Carroll County (20.9), Woodford County (21.3), Boone County (20.7).