How hard is the water in Bon Homme County, SD?

14 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Bon Homme County, SD is 241 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 88 samples at 1 sites between 1990 and 2005, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 14 and 14 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: low (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 14 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 14.0 to 14.0 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Bon Homme County was 240.5 mg/L and the hardest 240.5 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 307 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $55), 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 $155 a year.

Sizing at 14 gpg

Bon Homme County against the rest of South Dakota

Among the 55 South Dakota counties with data, Bon Homme County is number 41 of 55 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 67% of counties.

Softest in South Dakota: Dewey County at 0.5 gpg. Hardest: Hanson County at 84.7 gpg. Closest to Bon Homme County: Harding County (14), Walworth County (13.4), Perkins County (15.1).