How hard is the water in Wilson County, TX?
4.1 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Wilson County, TX is 70 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 4.1 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 58 samples at 15 sites between 2004 and 2017, 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 2.8 and 9 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 4.1 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 Wilson 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 1.3 to 17.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Wilson County was 22.8 mg/L and the hardest 305 mg/L, a 13-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 2.8 gpg.
Wells 4.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.8 gpg
58 groundwater samples from 15 wells put the median at 70.3 mg/L. 2 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 287.5 mg/L. In Wilson County the rivers and lakes come out 12.7 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer 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 90 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $16), 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 $116 a year.
Sizing at 4.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 246 | 24,000 | 30 lb |
| 2 | 492 | 24,000 | 60 lb |
| 4 | 984 | 24,000 | 120 lb |
| 6 | 1,476 | 24,000 | 180 lb |
Wilson County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Wilson County is number 183 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 26% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Wilson County: Robertson County (4), Hardin County (4), Jasper County (3.8).