How hard is the water in Benson County, ND?
14.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Benson County, ND is 255 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 113 samples at 50 sites between 1990 and 2023, 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 12.6 and 21.4 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 14.9 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 5.8 to 122.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Benson County was 100 mg/L and the hardest 2,090 mg/L, a 21-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 21.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.6 gpg.
Wells 14.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 25.1 gpg
113 groundwater samples from 50 wells put the median at 255.3 mg/L. 584 surface samples from 54 sites put it at 429.3 mg/L. In Benson County the rivers and lakes come out 10.2 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 326 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $59), 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 $159 a year.
Sizing at 14.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 894 | 24,000 | 109 lb |
| 2 | 1,788 | 24,000 | 218 lb |
| 4 | 3,576 | 32,000 | 435 lb |
| 6 | 5,364 | 40,000 | 653 lb |
Benson County against the rest of North Dakota
Among the 53 North Dakota counties with data, Benson County is number 41 of 53 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 69% of counties.
Softest in North Dakota: Hettinger County at 1.1 gpg. Hardest: Walsh County at 54 gpg. Closest to Benson County: Emmons County (15), Griggs County (14.3), Mountrail County (15.5).