How hard is the water in Buffalo County, NE?
22.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Buffalo County, NE is 387 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 22.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 102 samples at 44 sites between 1990 and 2009, 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 17 and 25.4 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 22.6 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 11.4 to 38.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Buffalo County was 194.5 mg/L and the hardest 653.5 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 25.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17 gpg.
Wells 22.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 10.4 gpg
102 groundwater samples from 44 wells put the median at 387.3 mg/L. 25 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 178 mg/L. In Buffalo County the wells come out 12.2 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 494 lb of salt a year (13 bags of 40 lb, about $89), 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 $189 a year.
Sizing at 22.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,356 | 24,000 | 165 lb |
| 2 | 2,712 | 24,000 | 330 lb |
| 4 | 5,424 | 40,000 | 660 lb |
| 6 | 8,136 | 64,000 | 990 lb |
Buffalo County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Buffalo County is number 8 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 89% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Buffalo County: Thurston County (22.9), Dawson County (23.2), Washington County (23.7).