How hard is the water in Daggett County, UT?
14 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Daggett County, UT is 239 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 966 samples at 63 sites between 1990 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 1.5 and 29.9 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 14 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 Daggett 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 116.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Daggett County was 6.9 mg/L and the hardest 1,985 mg/L, a 288-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 29.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 1.5 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 19.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.1 gpg
5 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 337 mg/L. 960 surface samples from 58 sites put it at 242.1 mg/L. In Daggett County the wells come out 5.6 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 305 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $55), 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 $155 a year.
Sizing at 14 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 840 | 24,000 | 102 lb |
| 2 | 1,680 | 24,000 | 204 lb |
| 4 | 3,360 | 24,000 | 409 lb |
| 6 | 5,040 | 40,000 | 613 lb |
Daggett County against the rest of Utah
Among the 29 Utah counties with data, Daggett County is number 23 of 29 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 66% of counties.
Softest in Utah: Davis County at 9 gpg. Hardest: Emery County at 151.3 gpg. Closest to Daggett County: Kane County (13.9), Weber County (14.1), Summit County (13.7).