How hard is the water in Vernon County, MO?
6.8 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Vernon County, MO is 116 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 6.8 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 215 samples at 21 sites between 2004 and 2022, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 6.2 and 8.6 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 6.8 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one. Because Vernon 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 4.4 to 35.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Vernon County was 75.9 mg/L and the hardest 598.5 mg/L, an 8-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 6.2 gpg.
Wells 22.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 6.8 gpg
3 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 390.3 mg/L. 212 surface samples from 19 sites put it at 116 mg/L. In Vernon County the wells come out 16.0 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 148 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $27), 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 $127 a year.
Sizing at 6.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 408 | 24,000 | 50 lb |
| 2 | 816 | 24,000 | 99 lb |
| 4 | 1,632 | 24,000 | 199 lb |
| 6 | 2,448 | 24,000 | 298 lb |
Vernon County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Vernon County is number 105 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 38% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Vernon County: Scott County (7), Wayne County (7), Chariton County (5.8).