How hard is the water in Yakutat City and Borough, AK?
7.4 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Yakutat City and Borough, AK is 127 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.4 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 22 samples at 12 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 7.2 and 8.1 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 7.4 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 7.0 to 8.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Yakutat City and Borough was 119 mg/L and the hardest 139.5 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.2 gpg.
Wells 7.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 15.4 gpg
22 groundwater samples from 12 wells put the median at 126.5 mg/L. 60 surface samples from 9 sites put it at 264 mg/L. In Yakutat City and Borough the rivers and lakes come out 8.0 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 161 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $29), 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 $129 a year.
Sizing at 7.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 444 | 24,000 | 54 lb |
| 2 | 888 | 24,000 | 108 lb |
| 4 | 1,776 | 24,000 | 216 lb |
| 6 | 2,664 | 24,000 | 324 lb |
Yakutat City and Borough against the rest of Alaska
Among the 22 Alaska counties with data, Yakutat City and Borough is number 6 of 22 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 40% of counties.
Softest in Alaska: Petersburg Borough at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Southeast Fairbanks Census Area at 16.3 gpg. Closest to Yakutat City and Borough: Matanuska-Susitna Borough (7.2), Anchorage Municipality (7.6), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (6.3).