How hard is the water in Big Horn County, WY?
26.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Big Horn County, WY is 452 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 26.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 21 samples at 21 sites between 1990 and 2018, 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 8.2 and 41.7 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 26.4 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. Because Big Horn County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 0.5 to 111.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Big Horn County was 8.1 mg/L and the hardest 1,900 mg/L, a 235-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 41.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 8.2 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 26.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 15.6 gpg
21 groundwater samples from 21 wells put the median at 452 mg/L. 112 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 267.8 mg/L. In Big Horn County the wells come out 10.8 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 40,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 577 lb of salt a year (15 bags of 40 lb, about $104), 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 $204 a year.
Sizing at 26.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,584 | 24,000 | 193 lb |
| 2 | 3,168 | 24,000 | 385 lb |
| 4 | 6,336 | 48,000 | 771 lb |
| 6 | 9,504 | 80,000 | 1,156 lb |
Big Horn County against the rest of Wyoming
Among the 23 Wyoming counties with data, Big Horn County is number 3 of 23 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 93% of counties.
Softest in Wyoming: Park County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Natrona County at 124.4 gpg. Closest to Big Horn County: Sheridan County (24.3), Hot Springs County (22.5), Crook County (30.7).