How hard is the water in Tama County, IA?
19.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Tama County, IA is 340 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 53 samples at 14 sites between 1991 and 2017, 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 18.2 and 34.8 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 19.9 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 11.7 to 60.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Tama County was 201 mg/L and the hardest 1,040 mg/L, a 5-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 34.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.2 gpg.
Wells 19.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 15.8 gpg
53 groundwater samples from 14 wells put the median at 340 mg/L. 165 surface samples from 12 sites put it at 270.3 mg/L. In Tama County the wells come out 4.1 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 434 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $78), 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 $178 a year.
Sizing at 19.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,194 | 24,000 | 145 lb |
| 2 | 2,388 | 24,000 | 291 lb |
| 4 | 4,776 | 40,000 | 581 lb |
| 6 | 7,164 | 64,000 | 872 lb |
Tama County against the rest of Iowa
Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Tama County is number 45 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 84% of counties.
Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Tama County: Cedar County (19.9), Mahaska County (19.9), Dickinson County (20).