How hard is the water in Rolette County, ND?
24.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Rolette County, ND is 427 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 24.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 32 samples at 29 sites between 1995 and 2022, 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 18.3 and 33.2 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 24.9 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 4.3 to 77.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Rolette County was 72.8 mg/L and the hardest 1,330 mg/L, an 18-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 33.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.3 gpg.
Wells 24.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 19.4 gpg
32 groundwater samples from 29 wells put the median at 427 mg/L. 100 surface samples from 24 sites put it at 332 mg/L. In Rolette County the wells come out 5.5 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 545 lb of salt a year (14 bags of 40 lb, about $98), 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 $198 a year.
Sizing at 24.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,494 | 24,000 | 182 lb |
| 2 | 2,988 | 24,000 | 364 lb |
| 4 | 5,976 | 48,000 | 727 lb |
| 6 | 8,964 | 64,000 | 1,091 lb |
Rolette County against the rest of North Dakota
Among the 53 North Dakota counties with data, Rolette County is number 11 of 53 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 92% of counties.
Softest in North Dakota: Hettinger County at 1.1 gpg. Hardest: Walsh County at 54 gpg. Closest to Rolette County: Kidder County (24.6), Oliver County (24.6), Barnes County (24.4).