How hard is the water in Hanson County, SD?

84.7 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Hanson County, SD is 1450 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 84.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 48 samples at 3 sites between 1990 and 2014, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 55.9 and 84.7 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 84.7 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 27.0 to 84.7 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Hanson County was 463 mg/L and the hardest 1,450 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 84.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 55.9 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, the water is harder than a standard single tank handles in a week, so plan on a larger or twin-tank unit. Expect about 1,850 lb of salt a year (47 bags of 40 lb, about $333), 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 $433 a year.

Sizing at 84.7 gpg

Hanson County against the rest of South Dakota

Among the 55 South Dakota counties with data, Hanson County is the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 99% of counties.

Softest in South Dakota: Dewey County at 0.5 gpg. Closest to Hanson County: Sanborn County (82.4), Hutchinson County (68.9), Turner County (60.2).