How hard is the water in LaMoure County, ND?
23.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in LaMoure County, ND is 399 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 23.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 13 samples at 6 sites between 1990 and 2016, 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 21.2 and 29.2 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 23.3 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 13.1 to 40.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in LaMoure County was 225 mg/L and the hardest 701 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 29.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 21.2 gpg.
Wells 23.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 12.9 gpg
13 groundwater samples from 6 wells put the median at 399.3 mg/L. 156 surface samples from 9 sites put it at 221 mg/L. In LaMoure County the wells come out 10.4 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 509 lb of salt a year (13 bags of 40 lb, about $92), 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 $192 a year.
Sizing at 23.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,398 | 24,000 | 170 lb |
| 2 | 2,796 | 24,000 | 340 lb |
| 4 | 5,592 | 40,000 | 680 lb |
| 6 | 8,388 | 64,000 | 1,021 lb |
LaMoure County against the rest of North Dakota
Among the 53 North Dakota counties with data, LaMoure County is number 16 of 53 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 90% of counties.
Softest in North Dakota: Hettinger County at 1.1 gpg. Hardest: Walsh County at 54 gpg. Closest to LaMoure County: Cavalier County (23.4), Nelson County (22.2), Barnes County (24.4).