How hard is the water in Sharkey County, MS?
33.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Sharkey County, MS is 569 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 33.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 25 samples at 14 sites between 1996 and 2017, 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 14.4 and 85.7 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 33.3 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 0.1 to 136.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Sharkey County was 0.9 mg/L and the hardest 2,340 mg/L, a 2,600-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 85.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.4 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 33.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 3.8 gpg
25 groundwater samples from 14 wells put the median at 569.3 mg/L. 6 surface samples from 3 sites put it at 64.4 mg/L. In Sharkey County the wells come out 29.5 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 48,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 726 lb of salt a year (19 bags of 40 lb, about $131), 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 $231 a year.
Sizing at 33.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,998 | 24,000 | 243 lb |
| 2 | 3,996 | 32,000 | 486 lb |
| 4 | 7,992 | 64,000 | 972 lb |
| 6 | 11,988 | twin tank | 1,459 lb |
Sharkey County against the rest of Mississippi
Among the 78 Mississippi counties with data, Sharkey County is number 2 of 78 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 96% of counties.
Softest in Mississippi: Issaquena County at 0.1 gpg. Hardest: Franklin County at 60.5 gpg. Closest to Sharkey County: Washington County (22.5), Sunflower County (17.2), Coahoma County (16).