How hard is the water in DeWitt County, TX?
15.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in DeWitt County, TX is 263 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 14 samples at 7 sites between 1990 and 2013, 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 14.6 and 17.2 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 15.4 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 13.4 to 21.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in DeWitt County was 229 mg/L and the hardest 367 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.6 gpg.
Wells 15.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 12.4 gpg
14 groundwater samples from 7 wells put the median at 263 mg/L. 60 surface samples from 2 sites put it at 211.8 mg/L. In DeWitt County the wells come out 3.0 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 336 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $60), 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 $160 a year.
Sizing at 15.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 924 | 24,000 | 112 lb |
| 2 | 1,848 | 24,000 | 225 lb |
| 4 | 3,696 | 32,000 | 450 lb |
| 6 | 5,544 | 40,000 | 675 lb |
DeWitt County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, DeWitt County is number 88 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 71% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to DeWitt County: Hale County (15.2), Stephens County (15.3), Zapata County (15.2).