How hard is the water in Crockett County, TX?
209.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Crockett County, TX is 3580 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 209.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 5 samples at 5 sites between 2015 and 2017, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 17.1 and 218.5 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 209.1 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 17.1 to 241.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Crockett County was 292 mg/L and the hardest 4,130 mg/L, a 14-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 218.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.1 gpg.
Wells 17.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 218.5 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 292.5 mg/L. 3 surface samples from 3 sites put it at 3740 mg/L. In Crockett County the rivers and lakes come out 201.4 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, the water is harder than a standard single tank handles in a week, so plan on a larger or twin-tank unit. Expect about 4,567 lb of salt a year (115 bags of 40 lb, about $822), 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 $922 a year.
Sizing at 209.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12,546 | twin tank | 1,526 lb |
| 2 | 25,092 | twin tank | 3,053 lb |
| 4 | 50,184 | twin tank | 6,106 lb |
| 6 | 75,276 | twin tank | 9,159 lb |
Crockett County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Crockett County is number 2 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 100% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Crockett County: King County (207.4), Ward County (218.5), Childress County (195.1).