How hard is the water in Butler County, NE?

13.5 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Butler County, NE is 232 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 9 samples at 6 sites between 1994 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 12.9 and 17.8 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 13.5 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 12.7 to 23.0 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Butler County was 217 mg/L and the hardest 394 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.9 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 295 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $53), 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 $153 a year.

Sizing at 13.5 gpg

Butler County against the rest of Nebraska

Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Butler County is number 54 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 64% of counties.

Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Butler County: Saline County (13.4), Gosper County (13.8), Seward County (13.8).