How hard is the water in Ouray County, CO?
15.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Ouray County, CO is 272 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 6 samples at 6 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 13.8 and 41.4 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 15.9 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 8.1 to 57.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Ouray County was 138 mg/L and the hardest 978 mg/L, a 7-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 41.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.8 gpg.
Wells 15.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.3 gpg
6 groundwater samples from 6 wells put the median at 271.5 mg/L. 4,309 surface samples from 152 sites put it at 160 mg/L. In Ouray County the wells come out 6.6 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 346 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $62), 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 $162 a year.
Sizing at 15.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 954 | 24,000 | 116 lb |
| 2 | 1,908 | 24,000 | 232 lb |
| 4 | 3,816 | 32,000 | 464 lb |
| 6 | 5,724 | 48,000 | 696 lb |
Ouray County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Ouray County is number 22 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 72% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Ouray County: Baca County (15.8), Moffat County (15.8), San Juan County (16.2).