How hard is the water in Dolores County, CO?
6.7 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Dolores County, CO is 115 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 6.7 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 281 samples at 71 sites between 1990 and 2024, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 5.2 and 12.4 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 6.7 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one. Because Dolores County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 0.1 to 163.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Dolores County was 1.4 mg/L and the hardest 2,800 mg/L, a 2,000-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.2 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 147 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $26), 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 $126 a year.
Sizing at 6.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 402 | 24,000 | 49 lb |
| 2 | 804 | 24,000 | 98 lb |
| 4 | 1,608 | 24,000 | 196 lb |
| 6 | 2,412 | 24,000 | 293 lb |
Dolores County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Dolores County is number 48 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 38% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Dolores County: Douglas County (6.5), Elbert County (7), Teller County (7).