How hard is the water in Union County, IN?
16.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Union County, IN is 287 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 12 samples at 7 sites between 1999 and 2002, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 16.5 and 18.7 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 16.7 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 16.2 to 19.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Union County was 276.5 mg/L and the hardest 336 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 18.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 16.5 gpg.
Wells 16.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 17.4 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 284 mg/L. 11 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 297.8 mg/L. In Union County the rivers and lakes come out 0.8 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.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 366 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $66), 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 $166 a year.
Sizing at 16.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,002 | 24,000 | 122 lb |
| 2 | 2,004 | 24,000 | 244 lb |
| 4 | 4,008 | 32,000 | 488 lb |
| 6 | 6,012 | 48,000 | 731 lb |
Union County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Union County is number 48 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 75% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Union County: Fountain County (16.8), Franklin County (16.8), Decatur County (16.6).