How hard is the water in Weston County, WY?
21.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Weston County, WY is 366 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 21.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 10 samples at 6 sites between 1990 and 2020, 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 11.5 and 31.7 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 21.4 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.
From 0.5 to 57.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Weston County was 8.5 mg/L and the hardest 977 mg/L, a 115-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 31.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.5 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 21.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 17.5 gpg
10 groundwater samples from 6 wells put the median at 366 mg/L. 66 surface samples from 2 sites put it at 300.3 mg/L. In Weston County the wells come out 3.9 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 467 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $84), 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 $184 a year.
Sizing at 21.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,284 | 24,000 | 156 lb |
| 2 | 2,568 | 24,000 | 312 lb |
| 4 | 5,136 | 40,000 | 625 lb |
| 6 | 7,704 | 64,000 | 937 lb |
Weston County against the rest of Wyoming
Among the 23 Wyoming counties with data, Weston County is number 6 of 23 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 87% of counties.
Softest in Wyoming: Park County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Natrona County at 124.4 gpg. Closest to Weston County: Hot Springs County (22.5), Sheridan County (24.3), Johnson County (16.9).