Austin, Texas

Water Quality in Austin, Texas

Watershed: Town Lake – Colorado River

What is the water quality like in Austin, TX?

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

What’s in Austin 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. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 22 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

10 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 Austin’s water come from?

Austin’s water comes from the Town Lake – Colorado River watershed.

5 of the 16 EPA assessed water sources in the Town Lake – Colorado River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• East Bouldin Creek – Unknown
• Spicewood tributary to Shoal Creek – Impaired
• Waller Creek – Impaired

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

• Blunn Creek
• Boggy Creek
• Colorado River
• Fort Branch Creek
• Harper’s Branch
• Lady Bird Lake
• Shoal Creek
• Tannehill Branch Creek
• West Bouldin Creek

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 Austin’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 16 of the 22 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Austin water.
  • Brita can filter 14 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 21 of the 22 contaminants, consider a Whole House 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:

*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.austintexas.gov/government to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Texas Cities

Texas Water Quality Page