How hard is the water in Upshur County, TX?

2.4 grains per gallon

You do not need a softener here.

The median hardness measured in Upshur County, TX is 41 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 2.4 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 36 samples at 3 sites between 1999 and 2015, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 1.6 and 2.8 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

You can skip the softener. At 2.4 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Upshur County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one.

More on when a softener is not worth it.

From 0.8 to 3.2 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Upshur County was 13.4 mg/L and the hardest 55 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 2.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 1.6 gpg.

Wells 0.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.8 gpg

1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 13.4 mg/L. 35 surface samples from 2 sites put it at 47.9 mg/L. In Upshur County the rivers and lakes come out 2.0 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.

Upshur County against the rest of Texas

Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Upshur County is number 195 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 19% of counties.

Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Upshur County: Cherokee County (2.4), Nueces County (2.4), Presidio County (2.4).