How hard is the water in Blaine County, OK?
26.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Blaine County, OK is 450 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 26.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 146 samples at 9 sites between 1990 and 2018, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 25.2 and 36.2 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 26.3 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 13.6 to 126.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Blaine County was 233 mg/L and the hardest 2,170 mg/L, a 9-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 36.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 25.2 gpg.
Wells 99.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 26.2 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 1700 mg/L. 145 surface samples from 8 sites put it at 448 mg/L. In Blaine County the wells come out 73.1 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 574 lb of salt a year (15 bags of 40 lb, about $103), 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 $203 a year.
Sizing at 26.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,578 | 24,000 | 192 lb |
| 2 | 3,156 | 24,000 | 384 lb |
| 4 | 6,312 | 48,000 | 768 lb |
| 6 | 9,468 | 80,000 | 1,152 lb |
Blaine County against the rest of Oklahoma
Among the 77 Oklahoma counties with data, Blaine County is number 19 of 77 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 93% of counties.
Softest in Oklahoma: McCurtain County at 0.8 gpg. Hardest: Greer County at 125 gpg. Closest to Blaine County: Canadian County (25.9), McClain County (24.2), Stephens County (28.7).