How hard is the water in Juab County, UT?
28.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Juab County, UT is 488 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 28.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 177 samples at 82 sites between 1990 and 2021, 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 18.3 and 38.1 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 28.5 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 1.5 to 134.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Juab County was 25.5 mg/L and the hardest 2,300 mg/L, a 90-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 38.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 28.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 13.4 gpg
177 groundwater samples from 82 wells put the median at 487.8 mg/L. 806 surface samples from 82 sites put it at 228.9 mg/L. In Juab County the wells come out 15.1 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 622 lb of salt a year (16 bags of 40 lb, about $112), 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 $212 a year.
Sizing at 28.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,710 | 24,000 | 208 lb |
| 2 | 3,420 | 24,000 | 416 lb |
| 4 | 6,840 | 48,000 | 832 lb |
| 6 | 10,260 | 80,000 | 1,248 lb |
Juab County against the rest of Utah
Among the 29 Utah counties with data, Juab County is number 2 of 29 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 94% of counties.
Softest in Utah: Davis County at 9 gpg. Hardest: Emery County at 151.3 gpg. Closest to Juab County: Uintah County (27.9), Salt Lake County (25.9), Box Elder County (25.2).