How hard is the water in Surry County, VA?

1.2 grains per gallon

You do not need a softener here.

The median hardness measured in Surry County, VA is 20 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 1.2 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 13 samples at 7 sites between 1991 and 2026, 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 0.5 and 4.5 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: medium (how it is measured).

What to do next

You can skip the softener. At 1.2 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Surry County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one. Because Surry County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.

More on when a softener is not worth it.

From 0.2 to 5.1 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Surry County was 2.8 mg/L and the hardest 87.3 mg/L, a 31-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 4.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 0.5 gpg.

Wells 1.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.6 gpg

13 groundwater samples from 7 wells put the median at 20.2 mg/L. 217 surface samples from 9 sites put it at 44 mg/L. In Surry County the rivers and lakes come out 1.4 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.

Surry County against the rest of Virginia

Among the 126 Virginia counties with data, Surry County is number 101 of 126 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 8% of counties.

Softest in Virginia: Isle of Wight County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarke County at 20.1 gpg. Closest to Surry County: Bland County (1.1), Greensville County (1.1), Stafford County (1.2).