How hard is the water in Las Animas County, CO?
8.5 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Las Animas County, CO is 145 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.5 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 1,441 samples at 100 sites between 1990 and 2026, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 7.3 and 16.6 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 8.5 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Las Animas 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 0.9 to 111.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Las Animas County was 15 mg/L and the hardest 1,900 mg/L, a 127-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 185 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $33), 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 $133 a year.
Sizing at 8.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 510 | 24,000 | 62 lb |
| 2 | 1,020 | 24,000 | 124 lb |
| 4 | 2,040 | 24,000 | 248 lb |
| 6 | 3,060 | 24,000 | 372 lb |
Las Animas County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Las Animas County is number 40 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 44% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Las Animas County: La Plata County (8.4), Mineral County (8.2), Gunnison County (9.1).