How hard is the water in Atchison County, KS?
12.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Atchison County, KS is 221 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 550 samples at 18 sites between 1990 and 2017, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 10.8 and 15 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 12.9 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 6.4 to 73.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Atchison County was 110 mg/L and the hardest 1,260 mg/L, an 11-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.8 gpg.
Wells 12.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 12.9 gpg
3 groundwater samples from 3 wells put the median at 221 mg/L. 547 surface samples from 15 sites put it at 220 mg/L. In Atchison County the rivers and lakes come out 0.0 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 281 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $51), 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 $151 a year.
Sizing at 12.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 774 | 24,000 | 94 lb |
| 2 | 1,548 | 24,000 | 188 lb |
| 4 | 3,096 | 24,000 | 377 lb |
| 6 | 4,644 | 40,000 | 565 lb |
Atchison County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Atchison County is number 70 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 62% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Atchison County: Scott County (12.9), Morris County (12.9), Shawnee County (12.9).