How hard is the water in Vermilion County, IL?
18.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Vermilion County, IL is 320 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 18.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 639 samples at 42 sites between 1990 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 16.8 and 20.3 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 18.7 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 7.4 to 82.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Vermilion County was 127 mg/L and the hardest 1,415 mg/L, an 11-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 16.8 gpg.
Wells 45 gpg, rivers and lakes 18.7 gpg
33 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 771 mg/L. 604 surface samples from 38 sites put it at 320 mg/L. In Vermilion County the wells come out 26.3 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 408 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $73), 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 $173 a year.
Sizing at 18.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,122 | 24,000 | 137 lb |
| 2 | 2,244 | 24,000 | 273 lb |
| 4 | 4,488 | 32,000 | 546 lb |
| 6 | 6,732 | 48,000 | 819 lb |
Vermilion County against the rest of Illinois
Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Vermilion County is number 41 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 81% of counties.
Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Vermilion County: Winnebago County (18.7), De Witt County (18.5), Champaign County (18.4).