How hard is the water in Clear Creek County, CO?
12.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Clear Creek County, CO is 218 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 87 samples at 44 sites between 1990 and 2026, 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 3.6 and 31.4 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 12.7 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. Because Clear Creek 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 0.4 to 39.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Clear Creek County was 7.4 mg/L and the hardest 681 mg/L, a 92-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 31.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.6 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 12.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 3.4 gpg
87 groundwater samples from 44 wells put the median at 218 mg/L. 4,656 surface samples from 355 sites put it at 58 mg/L. In Clear Creek County the wells come out 9.3 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 278 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $50), 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 $150 a year.
Sizing at 12.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 762 | 24,000 | 93 lb |
| 2 | 1,524 | 24,000 | 185 lb |
| 4 | 3,048 | 24,000 | 371 lb |
| 6 | 4,572 | 40,000 | 556 lb |
Clear Creek County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Clear Creek County is number 29 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 61% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Clear Creek County: Kit Carson County (12.7), El Paso County (12.4), Montezuma County (13.2).