How hard is the water in Nemaha County, NE?
21.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Nemaha County, NE is 368 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 21.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 4 samples at 4 sites between 2004 and 2016, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 17.3 and 36 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 21.5 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.
Wells 25.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.9 gpg
3 groundwater samples from 3 wells put the median at 436 mg/L. 1 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 290 mg/L. In Nemaha County the wells come out 8.6 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. 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 469 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $84), 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 $184 a year.
Sizing at 21.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,290 | 24,000 | 157 lb |
| 2 | 2,580 | 24,000 | 314 lb |
| 4 | 5,160 | 40,000 | 628 lb |
| 6 | 7,740 | 64,000 | 942 lb |
Nemaha County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Nemaha County is number 9 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 87% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Nemaha County: Hitchcock County (21.1), Burt County (20.8), Buffalo County (22.6).