How hard is the water in Union County, IL?

12.3 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Union County, IL is 210 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 32 samples at 21 sites between 1999 and 2000, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 11.1 and 14.1 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: high (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 12.3 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 4.5 to 15.3 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Union County was 76.5 mg/L and the hardest 262 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.1 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 268 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $48), 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 $148 a year.

Sizing at 12.3 gpg

Union County against the rest of Illinois

Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Union County is number 81 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 59% of counties.

Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Union County: Massac County (12.3), Alexander County (12), Kankakee County (11.9).