How hard is the water in Scott County, MO?
7 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Scott County, MO is 120 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 4 samples at 3 sites between 1996 and 2019, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 6.4 and 10.5 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 7 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 Scott 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.
Wells 6.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 14 gpg
3 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 110.3 mg/L. 1 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 239 mg/L. In Scott County the rivers and lakes come out 7.6 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 153 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $28), 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 $128 a year.
Sizing at 7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 420 | 24,000 | 51 lb |
| 2 | 840 | 24,000 | 102 lb |
| 4 | 1,680 | 24,000 | 204 lb |
| 6 | 2,520 | 24,000 | 307 lb |
Scott County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Scott County is number 104 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 39% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Scott County: Wayne County (7), Vernon County (6.8), Mercer County (7.9).