How hard is the water in Pondera County, MT?
13.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Pondera County, MT is 233 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 86 samples at 45 sites between 1991 and 2012, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 11.4 and 16.1 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 13.6 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 3.4 to 209.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Pondera County was 59 mg/L and the hardest 3,578.4 mg/L, a 61-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.4 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 18.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 13.6 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 314 mg/L. 83 surface samples from 42 sites put it at 232 mg/L. In Pondera County the wells come out 4.7 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 297 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $53), 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 $153 a year.
Sizing at 13.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 816 | 24,000 | 99 lb |
| 2 | 1,632 | 24,000 | 199 lb |
| 4 | 3,264 | 24,000 | 397 lb |
| 6 | 4,896 | 40,000 | 596 lb |
Pondera County against the rest of Montana
Among the 56 Montana counties with data, Pondera County is number 33 of 56 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 65% of counties.
Softest in Montana: Lincoln County at 3.4 gpg. Hardest: Rosebud County at 138.9 gpg. Closest to Pondera County: Glacier County (13.6), Broadwater County (13.6), Meagher County (13.9).