How hard is the water in Mora County, NM?

13.9 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Mora County, NM is 238 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 135 samples at 24 sites between 1990 and 2006, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 11.9 and 16.7 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 13.9 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 4.0 to 31.9 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Mora County was 68.6 mg/L and the hardest 546 mg/L, an 8-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.9 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 304 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $55), 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 $155 a year.

Sizing at 13.9 gpg

Mora County against the rest of New Mexico

Among the 33 New Mexico counties with data, Mora County is number 18 of 33 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 66% of counties.

Softest in New Mexico: Rio Arriba County at 2.3 gpg. Hardest: Chaves County at 116.2 gpg. Closest to Mora County: Roosevelt County (14), Torrance County (12.8), Colfax County (12.8).