Missouri City, Texas
What is the Water Quality in Missouri City, Texas?
*Missouri City’s water supply is part of the greater Houston metropolitan water system. We’re using Houston’s numbers for Missouri City.
Compared to other US cities, Missouri City water quality ranks in the very high range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 49 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Arsenic is at very high levels: 528x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 268x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 599x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
- Radium is at very high levels: 24x health guidelines.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Missouri City water.
What’s in Missouri City water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in Missouri City water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chlorite – Potential effect: Change in blood chemistry
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 49 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
14 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Missouri City water have Lead contamination?
Yes, Missouri City has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2019 showed concentrations up to 48.9 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 Missouri City’s water come from?
Missouri City’s water comes from the Upper Sims Bayou watershed.
All 5 EPA assessed water sources in the Upper Sims Bayou watershed are in Impaired condition. These include:
- Canal C-147
- Sims Bayou Above Tidal – multiple sections
- An unnamed tributary of Sims Bayou
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 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 Missouri City’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Missouri City 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 your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Missouri City water.
- Brita can filter 28 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 46 of the 49 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:
- Arsenic – health risks
- Atrazine – herbicide
- Barium – health risks
- Bromochloroacetic acid
- Bromodichloromethane – health risks
- Bromoform
- Chlorite
- Chloroform – health risks
- Chromium (total)
- Cyanide – health risks
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium
- Molybdenum
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Radium
- Selenium – health risks
- Simazine – herbicide
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
- 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: http://www.missouricitytx.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.