How hard is the water in Antelope County, NE?
12.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Antelope County, NE is 209 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 14 samples at 14 sites between 1991 and 2013, 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 10.9 and 13.4 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 12.2 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 8.9 to 15.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Antelope County was 153 mg/L and the hardest 265 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 13.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.9 gpg.
Wells 12.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 8.5 gpg
14 groundwater samples from 14 wells put the median at 209 mg/L. 1 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 146 mg/L. In Antelope County the wells come out 3.7 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 267 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $48), 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 $148 a year.
Sizing at 12.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 732 | 24,000 | 89 lb |
| 2 | 1,464 | 24,000 | 178 lb |
| 4 | 2,928 | 24,000 | 356 lb |
| 6 | 4,392 | 32,000 | 534 lb |
Antelope County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Antelope County is number 60 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 59% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Antelope County: Frontier County (12.1), Gage County (12.8), Franklin County (11.5).