How hard is the water in Lee County, TX?
12.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Lee County, TX is 213 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 4 samples at 2 sites between 2008 and 2011, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 10 and 14.8 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 12.4 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. Because Lee 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.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 271 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $49), 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 $149 a year.
Sizing at 12.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 744 | 24,000 | 91 lb |
| 2 | 1,488 | 24,000 | 181 lb |
| 4 | 2,976 | 24,000 | 362 lb |
| 6 | 4,464 | 32,000 | 543 lb |
Lee County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Lee County is number 116 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 60% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Lee County: Lipscomb County (12.4), McMullen County (12.4), Aransas County (12.7).