How hard is the water in Cedar County, NE?
36.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Cedar County, NE is 625 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 36.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 12 samples at 10 sites between 1999 and 2020, 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 28.6 and 49.9 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 36.5 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 20.8 to 65.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Cedar County was 356 mg/L and the hardest 1,120 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 49.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 28.6 gpg.
Wells 36.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 13.2 gpg
12 groundwater samples from 10 wells put the median at 624.5 mg/L. 62 surface samples from 4 sites put it at 226.5 mg/L. In Cedar County the wells come out 23.3 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 48,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 797 lb of salt a year (20 bags of 40 lb, about $143), 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 $243 a year.
Sizing at 36.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,190 | 24,000 | 266 lb |
| 2 | 4,380 | 32,000 | 533 lb |
| 4 | 8,760 | 64,000 | 1,066 lb |
| 6 | 13,140 | twin tank | 1,599 lb |
Cedar County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Cedar County is the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 97% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Closest to Cedar County: Harlan County (36.2), Dakota County (32.8), Washington County (23.7).