How hard is the water in Tom Green County, TX?
17.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Tom Green County, TX is 303 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 17.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 6 samples at 6 sites between 2017 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 11.7 and 22.9 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 17.7 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 40.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Tom Green County was 75 mg/L and the hardest 684 mg/L, a 9-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 22.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.7 gpg.
Wells 24.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 15.8 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 412 mg/L. 5 surface samples from 5 sites put it at 271 mg/L. In Tom Green County the wells come out 8.3 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 386 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $69), 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 $169 a year.
Sizing at 17.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,062 | 24,000 | 129 lb |
| 2 | 2,124 | 24,000 | 258 lb |
| 4 | 4,248 | 32,000 | 517 lb |
| 6 | 6,372 | 48,000 | 775 lb |
Tom Green County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Tom Green County is number 68 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 78% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Tom Green County: Goliad County (17.7), Val Verde County (17.5), Victoria County (17.5).