How hard is the water in Union County, PA?
7.8 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Union County, PA is 133 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.8 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 22 samples at 7 sites between 1994 and 2025, 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 3 and 8.1 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 7.8 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. 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 0.0 to 16.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Union County was 0.8 mg/L and the hardest 276 mg/L, a 345-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 7.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 0.9 gpg
22 groundwater samples from 7 wells put the median at 133 mg/L. 838 surface samples from 30 sites put it at 15.3 mg/L. In Union County the wells come out 6.9 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 170 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $31), 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 $131 a year.
Sizing at 7.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 468 | 24,000 | 57 lb |
| 2 | 936 | 24,000 | 114 lb |
| 4 | 1,872 | 24,000 | 228 lb |
| 6 | 2,808 | 24,000 | 342 lb |
Union County against the rest of Pennsylvania
Among the 67 Pennsylvania counties with data, Union County is number 36 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 42% of counties.
Softest in Pennsylvania: Cameron County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarion County at 68.2 gpg. Closest to Union County: Lehigh County (7.8), Philadelphia County (7.6), Bradford County (8.2).