How hard is the water in Lincoln County, NE?
9.6 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Lincoln County, NE is 165 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 9.6 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 80 samples at 61 sites between 1993 and 2023, 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 7.3 and 15.5 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 9.6 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 Lincoln 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 2.3 to 26.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lincoln County was 39.6 mg/L and the hardest 457.5 mg/L, a 12-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 9.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 13.4 gpg
80 groundwater samples from 61 wells put the median at 165 mg/L. 70 surface samples from 14 sites put it at 229.3 mg/L. In Lincoln County the rivers and lakes come out 3.8 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 211 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $38), 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 $138 a year.
Sizing at 9.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 576 | 24,000 | 70 lb |
| 2 | 1,152 | 24,000 | 140 lb |
| 4 | 2,304 | 24,000 | 280 lb |
| 6 | 3,456 | 32,000 | 420 lb |
Lincoln County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Lincoln County is number 68 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 50% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Lincoln County: Kimball County (9.8), Thayer County (9.2), Banner County (9.1).