How hard is the water in Golden Valley County, MT?
37.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Golden Valley County, MT is 646 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 37.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 170 samples at 38 sites between 1994 and 2016, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 23.4 and 110.6 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 37.7 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 11.2 to 219.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Golden Valley County was 191 mg/L and the hardest 3,750 mg/L, a 20-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 110.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 23.4 gpg.
Wells 36.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 29.6 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 628 mg/L. 158 surface samples from 27 sites put it at 507.3 mg/L. In Golden Valley County the wells come out 7.1 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 48,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 824 lb of salt a year (21 bags of 40 lb, about $148), 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 $248 a year.
Sizing at 37.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,262 | 24,000 | 275 lb |
| 2 | 4,524 | 32,000 | 550 lb |
| 4 | 9,048 | 64,000 | 1,101 lb |
| 6 | 13,572 | twin tank | 1,651 lb |
Golden Valley County against the rest of Montana
Among the 56 Montana counties with data, Golden Valley County is number 10 of 56 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 97% of counties.
Softest in Montana: Lincoln County at 3.4 gpg. Hardest: Rosebud County at 138.9 gpg. Closest to Golden Valley County: Musselshell County (38.1), Toole County (38.1), Big Horn County (32.1).