How hard is the water in Williams County, ND?
32.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Williams County, ND is 553 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 32.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 29 samples at 18 sites between 1990 and 2023, 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 19.7 and 43.2 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 32.3 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 0.7 to 130.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Williams County was 12 mg/L and the hardest 2,230 mg/L, a 186-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 43.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 19.7 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 32.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 13.7 gpg
29 groundwater samples from 18 wells put the median at 552.5 mg/L. 367 surface samples from 23 sites put it at 234 mg/L. In Williams County the wells come out 18.6 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 48,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 705 lb of salt a year (18 bags of 40 lb, about $127), 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 $227 a year.
Sizing at 32.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,938 | 24,000 | 236 lb |
| 2 | 3,876 | 32,000 | 472 lb |
| 4 | 7,752 | 64,000 | 943 lb |
| 6 | 11,628 | twin tank | 1,415 lb |
Williams County against the rest of North Dakota
Among the 53 North Dakota counties with data, Williams County is number 9 of 53 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 96% of counties.
Softest in North Dakota: Hettinger County at 1.1 gpg. Hardest: Walsh County at 54 gpg. Closest to Williams County: Sargent County (32.5), Golden Valley County (35.4), Steele County (35.8).