Georgetown, Texas
What is the Water Quality in Georgetown, Texas?
Compared to other US cities, Georgetown water quality ranks in the high-middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 29 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Chloroform is at very high levels: 24x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 136x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 442x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Georgetown water.
What’s in Georgetown water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in Georgetown water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 29 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
Other contaminants in Georgetown, Texas water:
- Atrazine
- Barium
- Chlorate
- Cyanide
- Uranium
13 of the 29 contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Georgetown water have Lead contamination?
Yes, Georgetown has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from in 2017 showed concentrations up to 3.1 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 Georgetown’s water come from?
Georgetown’s water comes from the Lower South Fork San Gabriel River watershed.
All 3 EPA assessed water sources in the Lower South Fork San Gabriel River watershed are in Good condition. These include three sections of the South Fork of the San Gabriel River.
Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:
- Drinking Water
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Georgetown’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Georgetown 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:
There is one solution that beats Brita, PUR, and some whole house systems.
- It costs less per gallon.
- Needs fewer filter changes.
- And it doesn’t make your water taste weird.
- Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out the majority of contaminants in Georgetown’s drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Georgetown water.
- Brita can filter 16 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 26 of the 29 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
- Atrazine
- Barium – health risks in water
- Bromochloroacetic acid
- Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
- Bromoform
- Chloroform – side effects
- Cyanide – exposure limits
- Dibromoacetic acid
- Dibromochloromethane
- Dichloroacetic acid
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Nitrate
- 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://government.georgetown.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.