How hard is the water in Campbell County, WY?
8.9 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Campbell County, WY is 153 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.9 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 83 samples at 53 sites between 1990 and 2023, 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 4.4 and 30.4 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 8.9 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Campbell County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 0.5 to 151.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Campbell County was 9.2 mg/L and the hardest 2,585 mg/L, a 281-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 30.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.4 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 8.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 51.9 gpg
83 groundwater samples from 53 wells put the median at 153 mg/L. 1,136 surface samples from 19 sites put it at 889 mg/L. In Campbell County the rivers and lakes come out 43.0 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 195 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $35), 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 $135 a year.
Sizing at 8.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 534 | 24,000 | 65 lb |
| 2 | 1,068 | 24,000 | 130 lb |
| 4 | 2,136 | 24,000 | 260 lb |
| 6 | 3,204 | 24,000 | 390 lb |
Campbell County against the rest of Wyoming
Among the 23 Wyoming counties with data, Campbell County is number 18 of 23 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 46% of counties.
Softest in Wyoming: Park County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Natrona County at 124.4 gpg. Closest to Campbell County: Laramie County (8.7), Teton County (8.5), Washakie County (7.9).