Amarillo, Texas

Water Quality in Amarillo, Texas

Watershed: Tradewind Airport – City of Amarillo

What is the water quality like in Amarillo, TX?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Amarillo water.

What’s in Amarillo water?

Here are the top 7 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Arsenic – 1.85 parts per billion out of a legal limit of 10 parts per billion. Potential effect: Cancer.
2. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
6. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
7. Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer

These are seven of the 31 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

See the What Can You Do? section below for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.

Where does Amarillo’s water come from?

Amarillo’s water comes from the Tradewind Airport – City of Amarillo watershed.

There are no EPA assessed water sources in the Tradewind Airport – City of Amarillo watershed.

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

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

1. Drinking Water
2. Aquatic Life
3. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
4. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality can be surprising.

But there’s no reason to lose hope. There are things you can do in your household as well as things you can do at a community level.

In Your Household:

• Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out 26 of the 31 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Amarillo water.
  • Brita can filter 15 contaminants (and Lead depending on the filter).
  • Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
• To filter out 27 of the 31 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Aluminum
    • Arsenic – health risks
    • Barium – health risks in water
    • Bromate
    • Bromochloroacetic acid
    • Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
    • Bromoform
    • Chloroform – side effects
    • Chromium (total)
    • Dibromoacetic acid
    • Dibromochloromethane
    • Dichloroacetic acid
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Mercury
    • Molybdenum
    • Monobromoacetic acid
    • Monochloroacetic acid
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Selenium – health risks
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Trichloroacetic acid
    • Uranium

*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: https://www.amarillo.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Texas Cities

Texas Water Quality Page