How hard is the water in Lyon County, MN?
32.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Lyon County, MN is 549 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 32.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 119 samples at 29 sites between 1991 and 2025, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 24 and 37.1 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 32.1 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 14.6 to 55.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lyon County was 250 mg/L and the hardest 950.5 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 37.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 24 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 48,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 700 lb of salt a year (18 bags of 40 lb, about $126), 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 $226 a year.
Sizing at 32.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,926 | 24,000 | 234 lb |
| 2 | 3,852 | 32,000 | 469 lb |
| 4 | 7,704 | 64,000 | 937 lb |
| 6 | 11,556 | twin tank | 1,406 lb |
Lyon County against the rest of Minnesota
Among the 87 Minnesota counties with data, Lyon County is number 4 of 87 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 95% of counties.
Softest in Minnesota: Lake County at 1.3 gpg. Hardest: Traverse County at 42.6 gpg. Closest to Lyon County: Yellow Medicine County (32.8), Lac qui Parle County (29.7), Big Stone County (35.3).