How hard is the water in Upshur County, WV?
2.4 grains per gallon
You do not need a softener here.
The median hardness measured in Upshur County, WV is 42 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 2.4 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 13 samples at 11 sites between 1996 and 2012, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 2.3 and 6.4 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
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. Because Upshur County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 1.1 to 22.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Upshur County was 18.8 mg/L and the hardest 386 mg/L, a 21-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 6.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 2.3 gpg. So even in a soft county, a handful of wells here produce water hard enough to scale a heater.
Wells 3.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.4 gpg
4 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 61.2 mg/L. 9 surface samples from 7 sites put it at 40.6 mg/L. In Upshur County the wells come out 1.2 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
Upshur County against the rest of West Virginia
Among the 54 West Virginia counties with data, Upshur County is number 51 of 54 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 19% of counties.
Softest in West Virginia: Calhoun County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 20.4 gpg. Closest to Upshur County: Randolph County (2.5), Webster County (2.2), Clay County (3.1).