How hard is the water in Garfield County, CO?
26.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Garfield County, CO is 456 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 26.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 42 samples at 37 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 12.5 and 49.5 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 26.6 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 1.2 to 201.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Garfield County was 20.5 mg/L and the hardest 3,440 mg/L, a 168-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 49.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.5 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 26.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.6 gpg
42 groundwater samples from 37 wells put the median at 456 mg/L. 5,744 surface samples from 258 sites put it at 250 mg/L. In Garfield County the wells come out 12.0 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 40,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 582 lb of salt a year (15 bags of 40 lb, about $105), 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 $205 a year.
Sizing at 26.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,596 | 24,000 | 194 lb |
| 2 | 3,192 | 24,000 | 388 lb |
| 4 | 6,384 | 48,000 | 777 lb |
| 6 | 9,576 | 80,000 | 1,165 lb |
Garfield County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Garfield County is number 11 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 93% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Garfield County: Pueblo County (28), Denver County (24.2), Crowley County (23.5).