How hard is the water in Westmoreland County, PA?
25 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Westmoreland County, PA is 428 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 25 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 60 samples at 37 sites between 1992 and 2026, drawn from groundwater wells, which is what most taps and private wells in the county draw on.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 14.5 and 34 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 25 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 4.4 to 80.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Westmoreland County was 74.7 mg/L and the hardest 1,380 mg/L, an 18-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 34 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.5 gpg.
Wells 25 gpg, rivers and lakes 5.7 gpg
60 groundwater samples from 37 wells put the median at 428 mg/L. 820 surface samples from 63 sites put it at 98 mg/L. In Westmoreland County the wells come out 19.3 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 546 lb of salt a year (14 bags of 40 lb, about $98), 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 $198 a year.
Sizing at 25 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,500 | 24,000 | 183 lb |
| 2 | 3,000 | 24,000 | 365 lb |
| 4 | 6,000 | 48,000 | 730 lb |
| 6 | 9,000 | 64,000 | 1,095 lb |
Westmoreland County against the rest of Pennsylvania
Among the 67 Pennsylvania counties with data, Westmoreland County is number 7 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 92% of counties.
Softest in Pennsylvania: Cameron County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarion County at 68.2 gpg. Closest to Westmoreland County: Washington County (27.1), Allegheny County (22.4), Cambria County (28.6).