How hard is the water in Harvey County, KS?
12.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Harvey County, KS is 213 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 3,084 samples at 193 sites between 1990 and 2023, 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 7.9 and 19.4 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 12.4 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. Because Harvey County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 2.0 to 87.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Harvey County was 33.9 mg/L and the hardest 1,500 mg/L, a 44-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 19.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 12.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 11.9 gpg
3,084 groundwater samples from 193 wells put the median at 213 mg/L. 745 surface samples from 21 sites put it at 204 mg/L. In Harvey County the wells come out 0.5 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 272 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $49), 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 $149 a year.
Sizing at 12.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 744 | 24,000 | 91 lb |
| 2 | 1,488 | 24,000 | 181 lb |
| 4 | 2,976 | 24,000 | 362 lb |
| 6 | 4,464 | 32,000 | 543 lb |
Harvey County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Harvey County is number 77 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 60% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Harvey County: Cherokee County (12.3), Leavenworth County (12.6), Osage County (12.6).