How hard is the water in Burt County, NE?
20.8 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Burt County, NE is 356 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 20.8 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 167 samples at 35 sites between 1991 and 2015, 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 18.9 and 25.6 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 20.8 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 16.2 to 34.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Burt County was 277 mg/L and the hardest 587 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 25.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.9 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 454 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $82), 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 $182 a year.
Sizing at 20.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,248 | 24,000 | 152 lb |
| 2 | 2,496 | 24,000 | 304 lb |
| 4 | 4,992 | 40,000 | 607 lb |
| 6 | 7,488 | 64,000 | 911 lb |
Burt County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Burt County is number 11 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 86% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Burt County: Hitchcock County (21.1), Nemaha County (21.5), Hamilton County (19.7).