How hard is the water in Morrill County, NE?
13.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Morrill County, NE is 224 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 84 samples at 77 sites between 1991 and 2002, 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 10.1 and 16 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 13.1 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. Because Morrill 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 2.5 to 80.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Morrill County was 42.4 mg/L and the hardest 1,370 mg/L, a 32-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.1 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 13.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.7 gpg
84 groundwater samples from 77 wells put the median at 224 mg/L. 14 surface samples from 7 sites put it at 251 mg/L. In Morrill County the rivers and lakes come out 1.6 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 286 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $51), 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 $151 a year.
Sizing at 13.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 786 | 24,000 | 96 lb |
| 2 | 1,572 | 24,000 | 191 lb |
| 4 | 3,144 | 24,000 | 383 lb |
| 6 | 4,716 | 40,000 | 574 lb |
Morrill County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Morrill County is number 57 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 62% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Morrill County: Box Butte County (13), Dodge County (13.2), Gage County (12.8).