How hard is the water in Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK?

13.2 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK is 226 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 97 samples at 74 sites between 1994 and 2003, 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 10.7 and 15.4 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: high (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 13.2 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 2.9 to 28.3 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Fairbanks North Star Borough was 49.3 mg/L and the hardest 485 mg/L, a 10-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.7 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.

Wells 13.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.3 gpg

97 groundwater samples from 74 wells put the median at 226 mg/L. 14 surface samples from 13 sites put it at 160 mg/L. In Fairbanks North Star Borough the wells come out 3.9 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. 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 288 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $52), 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 $152 a year.

Sizing at 13.2 gpg

Fairbanks North Star Borough against the rest of Alaska

Among the 22 Alaska counties with data, Fairbanks North Star Borough is number 2 of 22 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 63% of counties.

Softest in Alaska: Petersburg Borough at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Southeast Fairbanks Census Area at 16.3 gpg. Closest to Fairbanks North Star Borough: Denali Borough (10.3), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (16.3), North Slope Borough (10).