How hard is the water in Webster County, WV?
2.2 grains per gallon
You do not need a softener here.
The median hardness measured in Webster County, WV is 38 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 2.2 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 40 samples at 9 sites between 1996 and 2011, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 0.8 and 4.4 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 2.2 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Webster County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one. Because Webster 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 0.6 to 41.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Webster County was 9.8 mg/L and the hardest 705 mg/L, a 72-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 4.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 0.8 gpg. So even in a soft county, a handful of wells here produce water hard enough to scale a heater.
Wells 4 gpg, rivers and lakes 1.1 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 68.7 mg/L. 38 surface samples from 7 sites put it at 18.4 mg/L. In Webster County the wells come out 2.9 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
Webster County against the rest of West Virginia
Among the 54 West Virginia counties with data, Webster County is number 52 of 54 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 17% of counties.
Softest in West Virginia: Calhoun County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 20.4 gpg. Closest to Webster County: Upshur County (2.4), Randolph County (2.5), Monroe County (1.6).