How hard is the water in Montezuma County, CO?
13.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Montezuma County, CO is 227 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 210 samples at 78 sites between 1990 and 2026, 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 6.9 and 76.5 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 13.2 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. Because Montezuma 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 0.2 to 228.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Montezuma County was 3.7 mg/L and the hardest 3,910 mg/L, a 1,057-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 76.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 6.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 13.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 17.3 gpg
210 groundwater samples from 78 wells put the median at 226.5 mg/L. 4,303 surface samples from 315 sites put it at 296 mg/L. In Montezuma County the rivers and lakes come out 4.1 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 289 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $52), 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 $152 a year.
Sizing at 13.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 792 | 24,000 | 96 lb |
| 2 | 1,584 | 24,000 | 193 lb |
| 4 | 3,168 | 24,000 | 385 lb |
| 6 | 4,752 | 40,000 | 578 lb |
Montezuma County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Montezuma County is number 27 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 63% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Montezuma County: Clear Creek County (12.7), Kit Carson County (12.7), Boulder County (13.9).