How hard is the water in Cattaraugus County, NY?
7.9 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Cattaraugus County, NY is 136 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.9 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 33 samples at 33 sites between 1990 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 5.8 and 9.8 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 7.9 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 Cattaraugus 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 54.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Cattaraugus County was 7.8 mg/L and the hardest 931 mg/L, a 119-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 9.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.8 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 7.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 4.2 gpg
33 groundwater samples from 33 wells put the median at 136 mg/L. 215 surface samples from 18 sites put it at 72.2 mg/L. In Cattaraugus County the wells come out 3.7 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 174 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $31), 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 $131 a year.
Sizing at 7.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 474 | 24,000 | 58 lb |
| 2 | 948 | 24,000 | 115 lb |
| 4 | 1,896 | 24,000 | 231 lb |
| 6 | 2,844 | 24,000 | 346 lb |
Cattaraugus County against the rest of New York
Among the 61 New York counties with data, Cattaraugus County is number 44 of 61 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 42% of counties.
Softest in New York: Suffolk County at 1.6 gpg. Hardest: New York County at 161.1 gpg. Closest to Cattaraugus County: Columbia County (8.2), Schuyler County (8.3), Putnam County (8.5).