How hard is the water in Union County, KY?
12.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Union County, KY is 221 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 241 samples at 7 sites between 1999 and 2024, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 5.7 and 16.6 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
At 12.9 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 Union 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 1.3 to 18.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Union County was 23 mg/L and the hardest 308 mg/L, a 13-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.7 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 282 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $51), 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 $151 a year.
Sizing at 12.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 774 | 24,000 | 94 lb |
| 2 | 1,548 | 24,000 | 188 lb |
| 4 | 3,096 | 24,000 | 377 lb |
| 6 | 4,644 | 40,000 | 565 lb |
Union County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Union County is number 11 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 62% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Union County: Robertson County (12.9), Floyd County (12.5), Oldham County (13.2).