How hard is the water in Jefferson County, NE?
10.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Jefferson County, NE is 181 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 9 samples at 6 sites between 1992 and 2015, 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 9.2 and 14.9 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 10.6 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 Jefferson 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 7.8 to 20.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Jefferson County was 133 mg/L and the hardest 347.5 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.2 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 231 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $42), 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 $142 a year.
Sizing at 10.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 636 | 24,000 | 77 lb |
| 2 | 1,272 | 24,000 | 155 lb |
| 4 | 2,544 | 24,000 | 310 lb |
| 6 | 3,816 | 32,000 | 464 lb |
Jefferson County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Jefferson County is number 64 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 53% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Jefferson County: Garfield County (10.5), Hayes County (10.4), Custer County (10.9).