How hard is the water in Carson County, TX?

11.7 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Carson County, TX is 201 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 8 samples at 6 sites between 1999 and 2021, 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 10.9 and 12.3 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 11.7 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 10.5 to 12.7 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Carson County was 180 mg/L and the hardest 218 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.9 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 256 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $46), 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 $146 a year.

Sizing at 11.7 gpg

Carson County against the rest of Texas

Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Carson County is number 121 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 57% of counties.

Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Carson County: Parmer County (11.7), Gray County (11.9), Live Oak County (11.5).