How hard is the water in Hudspeth County, TX?
61 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Hudspeth County, TX is 1045 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 61 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 47 samples at 26 sites between 1990 and 2007, 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 36.4 and 89.4 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 61 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 28.6 to 235.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Hudspeth County was 490 mg/L and the hardest 4,030 mg/L, an 8-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 89.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 36.4 gpg.
Wells 61 gpg, rivers and lakes 33.4 gpg
47 groundwater samples from 26 wells put the median at 1044.8 mg/L. 21 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 572 mg/L. In Hudspeth County the wells come out 27.6 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 80,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 1,333 lb of salt a year (34 bags of 40 lb, about $240), 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 $340 a year.
Sizing at 61 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3,660 | 32,000 | 445 lb |
| 2 | 7,320 | 64,000 | 891 lb |
| 4 | 14,640 | twin tank | 1,781 lb |
| 6 | 21,960 | twin tank | 2,672 lb |
Hudspeth County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Hudspeth County is number 15 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 98% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Hudspeth County: Blanco County (63.6), Wichita County (63.7), Young County (52.1).