How hard is the water in Brown County, TX?
27 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Brown County, TX is 462 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 27 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 25 samples at 2 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 24.7 and 29.2 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 27 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 22.4 to 31.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Brown County was 384 mg/L and the hardest 539 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 29.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 24.7 gpg.
Wells 31.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 22.4 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 539 mg/L. 24 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 384 mg/L. In Brown County the wells come out 9.1 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 589 lb of salt a year (15 bags of 40 lb, about $106), 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 $206 a year.
Sizing at 27 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,620 | 24,000 | 197 lb |
| 2 | 3,240 | 24,000 | 394 lb |
| 4 | 6,480 | 48,000 | 788 lb |
| 6 | 9,720 | 80,000 | 1,183 lb |
Brown County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Brown County is number 37 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 93% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Brown County: Palo Pinto County (26.9), Yoakum County (27.1), Lubbock County (26.3).