How hard is the water in Lac qui Parle County, MN?
29.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Lac qui Parle County, MN is 509 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 29.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 52 samples at 6 sites between 2008 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 27.9 and 31.7 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 29.7 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 26.3 to 40.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lac qui Parle County was 450 mg/L and the hardest 697 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 31.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 27.9 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 40,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 649 lb of salt a year (17 bags of 40 lb, about $117), 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 $217 a year.
Sizing at 29.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,782 | 24,000 | 217 lb |
| 2 | 3,564 | 32,000 | 434 lb |
| 4 | 7,128 | 64,000 | 867 lb |
| 6 | 10,692 | 80,000 | 1,301 lb |
Lac qui Parle County against the rest of Minnesota
Among the 87 Minnesota counties with data, Lac qui Parle County is number 5 of 87 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 94% of counties.
Softest in Minnesota: Lake County at 1.3 gpg. Hardest: Traverse County at 42.6 gpg. Closest to Lac qui Parle County: Blue Earth County (27.6), Lyon County (32.1), Yellow Medicine County (32.8).