How hard is the water in Turner County, SD?
60.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Turner County, SD is 1030 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 60.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 146 samples at 9 sites between 1991 and 2014, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 54.9 and 63.1 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 60.2 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 46.7 to 88.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Turner County was 800 mg/L and the hardest 1,510 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 63.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 54.9 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 80,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 1,314 lb of salt a year (33 bags of 40 lb, about $237), 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 $337 a year.
Sizing at 60.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3,612 | 32,000 | 439 lb |
| 2 | 7,224 | 64,000 | 879 lb |
| 4 | 14,448 | twin tank | 1,758 lb |
| 6 | 21,672 | twin tank | 2,637 lb |
Turner County against the rest of South Dakota
Among the 55 South Dakota counties with data, Turner County is number 4 of 55 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 98% of counties.
Softest in South Dakota: Dewey County at 0.5 gpg. Hardest: Hanson County at 84.7 gpg. Closest to Turner County: Haakon County (51.7), Hutchinson County (68.9), Charles Mix County (49.2).