How hard is the water in Golden Valley County, ND?
35.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Golden Valley County, ND is 607 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 35.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 103 samples at 4 sites between 1990 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 29.1 and 53.9 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 35.4 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 11.2 to 108.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Golden Valley County was 192.5 mg/L and the hardest 1,850 mg/L, a 10-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 53.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 29.1 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 48,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 774 lb of salt a year (20 bags of 40 lb, about $139), 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 $239 a year.
Sizing at 35.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,124 | 24,000 | 258 lb |
| 2 | 4,248 | 32,000 | 517 lb |
| 4 | 8,496 | 64,000 | 1,034 lb |
| 6 | 12,744 | twin tank | 1,551 lb |
Golden Valley County against the rest of North Dakota
Among the 53 North Dakota counties with data, Golden Valley County is number 7 of 53 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 96% of counties.
Softest in North Dakota: Hettinger County at 1.1 gpg. Hardest: Walsh County at 54 gpg. Closest to Golden Valley County: Steele County (35.8), Sargent County (32.5), Williams County (32.3).