How hard is the water in Jones County, SD?
30.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Jones County, SD is 518 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 30.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 70 samples at 2 sites between 1996 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 21.8 and 38.6 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 30.2 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 13.4 to 47.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Jones County was 230 mg/L and the hardest 805 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 38.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 21.8 gpg.
Wells 47 gpg, rivers and lakes 13.4 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 805 mg/L. 69 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 230 mg/L. In Jones County the wells come out 33.6 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 40,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 660 lb of salt a year (17 bags of 40 lb, about $119), 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 $219 a year.
Sizing at 30.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,812 | 24,000 | 220 lb |
| 2 | 3,624 | 32,000 | 441 lb |
| 4 | 7,248 | 64,000 | 882 lb |
| 6 | 10,872 | 80,000 | 1,323 lb |
Jones County against the rest of South Dakota
Among the 55 South Dakota counties with data, Jones County is number 18 of 55 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 95% of counties.
Softest in South Dakota: Dewey County at 0.5 gpg. Hardest: Hanson County at 84.7 gpg. Closest to Jones County: Davison County (31.6), Deuel County (28.6), Moody County (28).