Leander, Texas

What is the Water Quality in Leander, Texas?

[Updated: June 9, 2023]

Compared to other US cities, Leander water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination excluding Lead.

Most of their 24 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 103x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 257x health guidelines.
  • These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Leander water.

What’s in Leander water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Dibromochloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 24 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

12 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Leander have Lead contamination?

Yes, Leander has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2017 showed concentrations up to 1.4 parts per billion (ppb).

The legal limit for lead is 15 parts per billion. Being well-below this level is a good thing.

• Concentrations between 3.8 ppb and 15 ppb put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels. Read more about the symptoms of Lead in water.

There is no safe level of lead for humans.

• The good news is that 99.99% of the lead can be removed.

See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.

Where does Leander’s water come from?

Leander’s water comes from the South Brushy Creek – Brushy Creek watershed.

Both water sources in the South Brushy Creek – Brushy Creek watershed are in Unknown condition. These are:

• Brushy Creek above South Brushy Creek
• South Brushy Creek

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition.

Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of three uses:

1. Aquatic Life
2. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
3. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Leander’s water.

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Leander can be surprising.

But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.

To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:

• Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Faucet-mount filters work better than pitchers.
  • PUR and Brita are low-cost and effective.

• To filter out even more contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are much more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Barium
    • Bromodichloromethane
    • Bromoform
    • Chloroform
    • Cyanide
    • Fluoride
    • Nitrate
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
  • Our recommendation: APEC Reverse Osmosis Systems

*Chlorination is an effective method of disinfecting/treating drinking water. You can then use a water filter to reduce the effects of chlorination byproducts to get the safest, cleanest water possible.

In Your Community:

Contact your local government officials and put pressure on them to invest in cleaner waterways and upgraded city water filtration and treatment.

Go to: http://www.leandertx.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Texas Cities

Texas Water Quality Page