How hard is the water in Rock County, NE?

4.8 grains per gallon

Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.

The median hardness measured in Rock County, NE is 82 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 4.8 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 6 samples at 3 sites between 1993 and 2004, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 4.1 and 6.6 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 4.8 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one.

More on when a softener is not worth it.

From 3.5 to 8.5 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Rock County was 59.2 mg/L and the hardest 145 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 6.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.1 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 104 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $19), 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 $119 a year.

Sizing at 4.8 gpg

Rock County against the rest of Nebraska

Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Rock County is number 82 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 30% of counties.

Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Rock County: Cherry County (4.5), Keya Paha County (5.3), Brown County (4.2).