What counts as hard water?
The USGS classes water by calcium carbonate: 0 to 60 mg/L is soft, 61 to 120 moderately hard, 121 to 180 hard, and anything over 180 very hard.
Some reports use grains per gallon instead. One grain per gallon is 17.1 mg/L, the conversion LADWP uses, so the USGS lines fall at about 3.5, 7 and 10.5 grains.
Sources: USGS Water Science School, Hardness of Water; LADWP, Water Quality FAQs. Checked October 17, 2026.
Santa Clarita Valley
Very hard. SCV Water's groundwater runs 220 to 480 mg/L, averaging 354, about 20.7 grains. Its imported water averages 160 mg/L, about 9.4 grains, and taps get a blend of the two. LA County Waterworks District 36 averages 355.
Source: SCV Water, 2026 Consumer Confidence Report. Checked October 17, 2026.
San Fernando Valley, City of Los Angeles
Hard. LADWP gives 8.6 grains per gallon on average for the San Fernando Valley and Western LA, with a range of 5.4 to 16.1.
Source: LADWP, Water Quality FAQs. Checked October 17, 2026.
City of San Fernando
Very hard. The city's own wells report 190 mg/L total hardness, about 11.1 grains.
Source: City of San Fernando, 2025 Annual Water Quality Report. Checked October 17, 2026.
Palmdale
Moderately hard on average. Palmdale Water District's treated surface water averages 6.5 grains per gallon. Its groundwater averages 6.8 but ranges from 1.9 to 15.
Source: Palmdale Water District, 2025 Consumer Confidence Report. Checked October 17, 2026.
San Bernardino
Very hard. The Municipal Water Department reports an average of 242 mg/L, about 14.2 grains, from 130 to 330.
Source: San Bernardino Municipal Water Department, 2025 Water Quality Report. Checked October 17, 2026.
Bakersfield
It varies. Cal Water's Bakersfield wells range from 52 to 380 mg/L and average 105, about 6.1 grains, and its Kern River water about 49, which is soft.
Source: Cal Water, Bakersfield 2025 Water Quality Report. Checked October 17, 2026.
Does hard water hurt anything?
Not your health. San Fernando's own report calls hardness a quality issue, not a safety concern. It's your plumbing that pays: scale in water heaters and tankless heat exchangers, and crust on fixtures and glass.
What to do about it depends on where you live. In the Santa Clarita Valley salt softeners are banned, so the answer is filtration, reverse osmosis, salt-free conditioning or exchange tanks. Elsewhere a softener is an option, and in Bakersfield it often isn't needed.
Sources: City of San Fernando, 2025 Annual Water Quality Report; LA County Sanitation Districts, Automatic Water Softeners in the SCV. Checked October 17, 2026.
