Tarrant County, Texas: drinking water report. Tarrant County – anchored by Fort Worth and Arlington – is home to about 2.1 million people.
Tarrant County – anchored by Fort Worth and Arlington – is home to about 2.1 million people. The Trinity River Authority and the Tarrant Regional Water District supply most of the county's water from a network of reservoirs including Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain Lake, Cedar Creek Reservoir, and Richland-Chambers Reservoir. These surface water sources travel through treatment plants before reaching a distribution system that serves both urban cores and fast-growing suburban communities.
The EPA's UCMR5 monitoring has flagged PFAS detections in Tarrant County water systems. Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, located at the former Carswell Air Force Base, is a known PFAS source. The Department of Defense has confirmed AFFF contamination in groundwater near the installation, and nearby communities have been included in expanded monitoring efforts.
Tarrant County's surface water also picks up agricultural runoff and treated wastewater effluent from upstream communities. According to the 2024 Texas Commission on Environmental Quality compliance data, two community water systems in the county recorded disinfection byproduct levels within 90% of the EPA's maximum contaminant levels during summer months.
Whether you are in Fort Worth proper, Arlington, or one of the county's fast-growing northern suburbs, your water source and treatment plant may differ.
Check your water to see data specific to your ZIP code and provider. If you live near the Joint Reserve Base, PFAS filtration is worth considering – our water filter guide covers which types actually remove these compounds. For a full historical picture, pull your detailed report. See our Texas page for broader state context.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Tarrant County, TX.
The EPA places Tarrant County, TX in Zone 3 - the EPA's lowest-risk category, with a predicted average indoor radon level below 2 pCi/L. Zone maps predict an area's radon potential from geology and existing indoor readings; they say nothing about a specific house. Testing is the only way to know your own level.
35% of homes in Tarrant County, TX were built before 1980, and 6% before 1950. Residential lead paint was banned in 1978, so housing age is the strongest available proxy for lead-paint exposure. This describes the county's housing stock, not any one home.
Modelled annual fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) in Tarrant County, TX averages 8.9 µg/m³, within the EPA's annual standard of 9 µg/m³. These are CDC modelled county estimates rather than readings from a specific monitor.
How radon zones work · Air quality by county · Lead exposure guide