How hard is the water in Wheatland County, MT?
18 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Wheatland County, MT is 309 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 18 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 169 samples at 40 sites between 1990 and 2026, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 14.2 and 23.3 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 18 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 6.1 to 91.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Wheatland County was 104 mg/L and the hardest 1,570 mg/L, a 15-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 23.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.2 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 394 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $71), 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 $171 a year.
Sizing at 18 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,080 | 24,000 | 131 lb |
| 2 | 2,160 | 24,000 | 263 lb |
| 4 | 4,320 | 32,000 | 526 lb |
| 6 | 6,480 | 48,000 | 788 lb |
Wheatland County against the rest of Montana
Among the 56 Montana counties with data, Wheatland County is number 25 of 56 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 79% of counties.
Softest in Montana: Lincoln County at 3.4 gpg. Hardest: Rosebud County at 138.9 gpg. Closest to Wheatland County: Treasure County (18.7), Blaine County (17), Custer County (16.8).