How hard is the water in Walworth County, SD?
13.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Walworth County, SD is 229 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 3 samples at 2 sites between 2007 and 2016, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 12.4 and 14.3 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 13.4 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.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 292 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $53), 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 $153 a year.
Sizing at 13.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 804 | 24,000 | 98 lb |
| 2 | 1,608 | 24,000 | 196 lb |
| 4 | 3,216 | 24,000 | 391 lb |
| 6 | 4,824 | 40,000 | 587 lb |
Walworth County against the rest of South Dakota
Among the 55 South Dakota counties with data, Walworth County is number 43 of 55 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 64% of counties.
Softest in South Dakota: Dewey County at 0.5 gpg. Hardest: Hanson County at 84.7 gpg. Closest to Walworth County: Harding County (14), Bon Homme County (14), Pennington County (12.4).