How hard is the water in Routt County, CO?
23.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Routt County, CO is 398 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 23.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 17 samples at 8 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 17.9 and 24.5 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 23.2 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 4.4 to 37.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Routt County was 75 mg/L and the hardest 638.5 mg/L, a 9-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 24.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.9 gpg.
Wells 23.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 6.4 gpg
17 groundwater samples from 8 wells put the median at 397.5 mg/L. 3,330 surface samples from 205 sites put it at 110 mg/L. In Routt County the wells come out 16.8 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 507 lb of salt a year (13 bags of 40 lb, about $91), 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 $191 a year.
Sizing at 23.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,392 | 24,000 | 169 lb |
| 2 | 2,784 | 24,000 | 339 lb |
| 4 | 5,568 | 40,000 | 677 lb |
| 6 | 8,352 | 64,000 | 1,016 lb |
Routt County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Routt County is number 14 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 90% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Routt County: Crowley County (23.5), Washington County (22.5), Denver County (24.2).