How hard is the water in El Paso County, CO?
12.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in El Paso County, CO is 212 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 514 samples at 199 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 5.9 and 26.2 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 12.4 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. Because El Paso 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 0.1 to 286.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in El Paso County was 2.1 mg/L and the hardest 4,900 mg/L, a 2,333-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 26.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 12.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 10.5 gpg
514 groundwater samples from 199 wells put the median at 211.5 mg/L. 5,177 surface samples from 148 sites put it at 180 mg/L. In El Paso County the wells come out 1.9 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 270 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $49), 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 $149 a year.
Sizing at 12.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 744 | 24,000 | 91 lb |
| 2 | 1,488 | 24,000 | 181 lb |
| 4 | 2,976 | 24,000 | 362 lb |
| 6 | 4,464 | 32,000 | 543 lb |
El Paso County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, El Paso County is number 30 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 60% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to El Paso County: Clear Creek County (12.7), Kit Carson County (12.7), Alamosa County (12).