How hard is the water in Hitchcock County, NE?
21.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Hitchcock County, NE is 361 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 21.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 26 samples at 12 sites between 1994 and 2002, 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 12.9 and 26.2 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 21.1 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 9.1 to 32.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Hitchcock County was 155 mg/L and the hardest 555 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 26.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.9 gpg.
Wells 21.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 13.8 gpg
26 groundwater samples from 12 wells put the median at 360.5 mg/L. 2 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 236.5 mg/L. In Hitchcock County the wells come out 7.3 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 460 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $83), 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 $183 a year.
Sizing at 21.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,266 | 24,000 | 154 lb |
| 2 | 2,532 | 24,000 | 308 lb |
| 4 | 5,064 | 40,000 | 616 lb |
| 6 | 7,596 | 64,000 | 924 lb |
Hitchcock County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Hitchcock County is number 10 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 86% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Hitchcock County: Burt County (20.8), Nemaha County (21.5), Hamilton County (19.7).