How hard is the water in Lee County, IA?
14.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Lee County, IA is 242 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 23 samples at 8 sites between 1991 and 2011, 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 12.5 and 14.7 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 14.1 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 5.3 to 16.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lee County was 91.5 mg/L and the hardest 290 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.5 gpg.
Wells 14.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 15 gpg
23 groundwater samples from 8 wells put the median at 242 mg/L. 23 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 256 mg/L. In Lee County the rivers and lakes come out 0.9 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 309 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $56), 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 $156 a year.
Sizing at 14.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 846 | 24,000 | 103 lb |
| 2 | 1,692 | 24,000 | 206 lb |
| 4 | 3,384 | 24,000 | 412 lb |
| 6 | 5,076 | 40,000 | 618 lb |
Lee County against the rest of Iowa
Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Lee County is number 82 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 67% of counties.
Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Lee County: Butler County (14), Montgomery County (14), Chickasaw County (13.7).