How hard is the water in Taney County, MO?
10.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Taney County, MO is 180 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.5 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 293 samples at 25 sites between 1990 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 7.4 and 13.3 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 10.5 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. Because Taney 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.
From 5.7 to 20.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Taney County was 98.2 mg/L and the hardest 355 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 13.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.4 gpg.
Wells 18.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 10 gpg
4 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 321 mg/L. 289 surface samples from 21 sites put it at 172 mg/L. In Taney County the wells come out 8.8 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 230 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $41), 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 $141 a year.
Sizing at 10.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 630 | 24,000 | 77 lb |
| 2 | 1,260 | 24,000 | 153 lb |
| 4 | 2,520 | 24,000 | 307 lb |
| 6 | 3,780 | 32,000 | 460 lb |
Taney County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Taney County is number 78 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 53% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Taney County: Grundy County (10.5), Dunklin County (10.5), Lawrence County (10.4).