Midwest Water News

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Data Desk

6 Illinois River-Bottom Towns Ranked by Water Hardness, 2026

Real grains per gallon (hardness) data for 8 engine/data/water towns, pulled July 2026.

By MWN Data Desk ·

Methodology

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Midwest Water News ranked 8 engine/data/water towns in il, sorted by grains per gallon (hardness). Every number below comes straight from the source data, not an estimate.

  1. 1. Wood River (Madison County, IL)

    Grains per gallon (hardness): 24.5

    Wood River's tap comes from shallow wells dug right next to the Mississippi River levee - some of the hardest, most mineral-heavy water in the region, so heavy the city runs its own softeners and it still leaves scale crusting your faucets, spotting your dishes, and quietly cooking your water heater to an early death....

  2. 2. Edwardsville (Madison County, IL)

    Grains per gallon (hardness): 24.0

    If you're on Edwardsville city water, it's softened at the plant - so scale isn't your headline. The real story is what's dissolved in it: the city still reports lead service lines feeding some homes (one tap tested at 10 ppb, and there's no safe level of lead), plus disinfection by-products (TTHMs) running about 100x...

  3. 3. Jerseyville (Jersey County, IL)

    Grains per gallon (hardness): 21.5

    Your Jerseyville tap water comes from chlorinated wells that legally pass but tell a textbook hard-water story. It runs very hard (an estimated 18-25 grains), so you are scrubbing chalky white scale off faucets and showerheads, fighting filmy glasses, and watching it crust up inside your water heater and shorten its...

  4. 4. Grafton (Jersey County, IL)

    Grains per gallon (hardness): 15.0

    Grafton's tap water comes straight off the Mississippi River - disinfected with chloramine (not chlorine), so the cheap fridge and pitcher filters barely touch it. It runs roughly 15-grain VERY HARD because the utility doesn't soften it, which means white scale crusting your faucets and glassware, soap that won't...

  5. 5. Granite City (Madison County, IL)

    Grains per gallon (hardness): 14.5

    Granite City taps run on chloraminated Mississippi River water that lands at 14.5 grains of hardness - that is the chalky film on your shower glass, the spots on your faucets, the scale eating your water heater from the inside (hard water can cut a heater's life nearly in half). It dries out skin, leaves hair flat and...

  6. 6. Alton (Madison County, IL)

    Grains per gallon (hardness): 14.0

    Your tap water starts as Mississippi River water, treated with chloramine and running 9 to 19 grains hard - officially Very Hard. That is the chalky scale crusting your faucets and showerheads, the spots that won't wipe off your glasses, the film that leaves skin tight and itchy and hair dull and straw-like, and the...

  7. 7. Bethalto (Madison County, IL)

    Grains per gallon (hardness): 13.5

    If you live in Bethalto, you already know the story - brown water out of the tap, a metallic taste, and that gritty manganese and iron that stains your sinks, rings your toilet bowl, and leaves orange streaks on the tub. At 12-15 grains of hardness, that same water cakes scale on your faucets and shower glass, leaves...

  8. 8. Godfrey (Madison County, IL)

    Grains per gallon (hardness): 8.5

    If you're on Godfrey city water, you're drinking chloramine-treated Mississippi River water - that's the chemical-pool smell, the taste, and the reason rubber seals and fixtures wear out fast. It legally "passes," but it carries disinfection byproducts (TTHM and HAA5) at hundreds of times the health-based guideline,...