How hard is the water in Nemaha County, KS?
19.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Nemaha County, KS is 333 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 15 samples at 15 sites between 1990 and 2016, 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 17.5 and 25 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 19.5 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 8.4 to 100.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Nemaha County was 144 mg/L and the hardest 1,720 mg/L, a 12-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 25 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.5 gpg.
Wells 19.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.9 gpg
15 groundwater samples from 15 wells put the median at 333 mg/L. 737 surface samples from 21 sites put it at 290 mg/L. In Nemaha County the wells come out 2.6 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 425 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $76), 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 $176 a year.
Sizing at 19.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,170 | 24,000 | 142 lb |
| 2 | 2,340 | 24,000 | 285 lb |
| 4 | 4,680 | 40,000 | 569 lb |
| 6 | 7,020 | 64,000 | 854 lb |
Nemaha County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Nemaha County is number 35 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 83% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Nemaha County: Morton County (19.8), Republic County (19.9), Ellsworth County (19).