How hard is the water in Sanilac County, MI?
15 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Sanilac County, MI is 257 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 21 samples at 13 sites between 1997 and 2016, 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 13.1 and 20.8 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 15 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 7.0 to 28.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Sanilac County was 120 mg/L and the hardest 494 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.1 gpg.
Wells 15 gpg, rivers and lakes 19.3 gpg
21 groundwater samples from 13 wells put the median at 257 mg/L. 8 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 330 mg/L. In Sanilac County the rivers and lakes come out 4.3 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer 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 328 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $59), 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 $159 a year.
Sizing at 15 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 900 | 24,000 | 110 lb |
| 2 | 1,800 | 24,000 | 219 lb |
| 4 | 3,600 | 32,000 | 438 lb |
| 6 | 5,400 | 40,000 | 657 lb |
Sanilac County against the rest of Michigan
Among the 82 Michigan counties with data, Sanilac County is number 20 of 82 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 69% of counties.
Softest in Michigan: Luce County at 1.9 gpg. Hardest: Wayne County at 47.4 gpg. Closest to Sanilac County: Ionia County (15.2), Menominee County (15.2), St. Clair County (14.8).