How hard is the water in McCone County, MT?
23.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in McCone County, MT is 395 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 23.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 58 samples at 19 sites between 1990 and 2017, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 14.2 and 45.1 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 23.1 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 0.3 to 91.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in McCone County was 5.6 mg/L and the hardest 1,560 mg/L, a 279-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 45.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.2 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 39.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 22.9 gpg
3 groundwater samples from 3 wells put the median at 681 mg/L. 55 surface samples from 16 sites put it at 392.4 mg/L. In McCone County the wells come out 16.9 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river 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 504 lb of salt a year (13 bags of 40 lb, about $91), 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 $191 a year.
Sizing at 23.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,386 | 24,000 | 169 lb |
| 2 | 2,772 | 24,000 | 337 lb |
| 4 | 5,544 | 40,000 | 675 lb |
| 6 | 8,316 | 64,000 | 1,012 lb |
McCone County against the rest of Montana
Among the 56 Montana counties with data, McCone County is number 21 of 56 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 90% of counties.
Softest in Montana: Lincoln County at 3.4 gpg. Hardest: Rosebud County at 138.9 gpg. Closest to McCone County: Carter County (24), Phillips County (24.2), Prairie County (24.4).