How hard is the water in Lincoln County, NM?
21.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Lincoln County, NM is 363 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 21.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 120 samples at 51 sites between 1990 and 2021, 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 17.7 and 40 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 21.2 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 4.6 to 153.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lincoln County was 78 mg/L and the hardest 2,630 mg/L, a 34-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 40 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.7 gpg.
Wells 21.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 26.3 gpg
120 groundwater samples from 51 wells put the median at 363 mg/L. 211 surface samples from 40 sites put it at 450.3 mg/L. In Lincoln County the rivers and lakes come out 5.1 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 463 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $83), 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 $183 a year.
Sizing at 21.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,272 | 24,000 | 155 lb |
| 2 | 2,544 | 24,000 | 310 lb |
| 4 | 5,088 | 40,000 | 619 lb |
| 6 | 7,632 | 64,000 | 929 lb |
Lincoln County against the rest of New Mexico
Among the 33 New Mexico counties with data, Lincoln County is number 9 of 33 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 87% of counties.
Softest in New Mexico: Rio Arriba County at 2.3 gpg. Hardest: Chaves County at 116.2 gpg. Closest to Lincoln County: Quay County (18.5), Lea County (17.4), Doña Ana County (16.5).