Free Texas water report: PFAS & lead levels for every water system, worst-affected cities, and EPA violations. Check your ZIP.
Texas has more people, more land, more military bases, and more water infrastructure complexity than almost any other state. Approximately 30.5 million residents depend on a patchwork of river authorities, municipal utilities, rural water districts, and private wells that collectively make Texas one of the most fragmented water management landscapes in the country. Water sources range from the massive reservoir systems of East Texas to the sole-source Edwards Aquifer that supplies San Antonio and much of Central Texas, to the Ogallala Aquifer feeding irrigation and municipal wells across the Panhandle, to the Rio Grande serving the border region. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) regulates water quality across this sprawling system, but the sheer scale of the state means oversight is stretched thin.
Texas has more military installations than any other state, and the PFAS contamination footprint reflects that concentration. The major sites include:
- Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) – encompassing Lackland AFB, Randolph AFB, and Fort Sam Houston. JBSA sits directly above the Edwards Aquifer, a federally designated sole-source aquifer that supplies drinking water to over 2 million people in the San Antonio metro. PFAS from decades of AFFF use at Lackland and Randolph has been detected in monitoring wells, making this one of the highest-stakes military PFAS situations in the country. A sole-source aquifer means there is no alternative supply – contamination of the Edwards is contamination of the only water source for the region.
- Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, home to B-1B bomber operations, with documented AFFF use at fire training areas.
- Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood), one of the largest military installations in the world, located in Central Texas between Killeen and Copperas Cove. The base's massive footprint includes multiple fire training areas and vehicle maintenance operations.
- Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, a training installation where AFFF was used in firefighter certification programs.
- Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, a pilot training base near the Mexican border with documented AFFF use history.
- Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, a joint training installation.
- Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, near one of the largest petrochemical corridors in the world.
Beyond military sources, Texas's petrochemical industry – concentrated along the Gulf Coast from Beaumont to Corpus Christi – represents another major PFAS vector. Refineries, chemical plants, and industrial facilities have used PFAS-containing compounds in manufacturing processes for decades. The Houston Ship Channel corridor alone contains one of the densest concentrations of chemical manufacturing in the Western Hemisphere.
The scale of Texas's PFAS challenge is difficult to overstate. No other state combines this many military bases, this much petrochemical industry, and this many people dependent on vulnerable water sources. The JBSA-Edwards Aquifer situation alone would be a major national story in any other state – the potential contamination of a sole-source aquifer serving 2 million people from military operations is a scenario with no easy remediation path.
Texas has been notably slower than other large states to establish its own PFAS regulations. TCEQ has relied primarily on federal EPA standards rather than setting state-specific MCLs. As of early 2026, the state has not adopted enforceable PFAS limits for drinking water, and TCEQ's monitoring program, while expanding, does not yet cover the full scope of potential contamination sources.
This regulatory gap is significant. States like Michigan, California, and New Jersey have adopted PFAS standards stricter than federal levels and have invested heavily in monitoring and remediation. Texas, despite having arguably the largest potential PFAS exposure footprint in the country, has taken a more cautious regulatory approach. The EPA's UCMR5 data has provided some baseline information, but many Texas water systems – particularly smaller rural utilities and private wells – remain untested.
Compared to other large Sun Belt states, Texas faces additional infrastructure challenges. Rapid population growth – the state added roughly 4 million people between 2010 and 2020 – is outpacing water infrastructure investment in many regions. Water systems designed for smaller populations are being stretched, and new development is encroaching on aquifer recharge zones and watershed protection areas.
In a state this large and complex, your water quality depends almost entirely on your specific location, water source, and utility.
1. Check your water quality using our free tool. Texas water varies enormously – San Antonio Edwards Aquifer water has a completely different profile than Houston surface water or Panhandle Ogallala groundwater. 2. If you live near any of the military installations listed above – particularly JBSA in San Antonio – PFAS-specific testing is strongly recommended. For San Antonio residents specifically, our data can show you what has been detected in your service area of the Edwards Aquifer. Our water filter guide covers reverse osmosis systems, which are the most effective household option for PFAS reduction. 3. Rural Texans on private wells should test independently. TCEQ's monitoring does not cover private wells, and many rural areas sit near contamination sources – military bases, oil and gas operations, agricultural chemical application – that have never been systematically tested for PFAS. Request a detailed water report for your address to see what data exists. 4. If you are in the Houston-Gulf Coast region, contaminant concerns extend beyond PFAS to include industrial solvents, heavy metals, and disinfection byproducts from treating warm, organic-rich surface water.
Texas water history reads like a compressed version of the entire American water story. The state has experienced catastrophic droughts (the 1950s drought of record nearly emptied major reservoirs), explosive growth (Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio have all grown dramatically since 1990), and infrastructure crises that exposed system vulnerabilities.
The Edwards Aquifer has been the subject of legal and political battles for decades. In 1993, the Edwards Aquifer Authority was created after years of litigation between agricultural users, cities, and environmental groups. The aquifer feeds the Comal and San Marcos springs – home to endangered species – and serves as the sole drinking water source for San Antonio, the seventh-largest city in the country. The aquifer's karst limestone geology means it recharges quickly during rain but is also vulnerable to surface contamination migrating rapidly underground.
JBSA's presence above the Edwards Aquifer dates to World War I, when the military first established operations in San Antonio. Over more than a century, the combined operations at Lackland, Randolph, and Fort Sam Houston have included extensive fire training, aircraft maintenance, and industrial operations – all generating PFAS waste that has interacted with the aquifer system beneath the bases.
Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 exposed catastrophic vulnerabilities in Texas water infrastructure. Frozen pipes, power failures at treatment plants, and burst mains left millions without safe drinking water for days. Boil-water notices were issued for over 13 million Texans at the peak of the crisis. The event demonstrated that water quality is not just about contamination – it is about system resilience.
The Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies much of the Texas Panhandle, is being depleted faster than it recharges – a trend that has been documented for decades. As water levels drop, remaining water can concentrate contaminants, and communities dependent on the Ogallala face both quantity and quality concerns over the coming decades.
Texas's petrochemical coast has its own legacy. The Houston Ship Channel has been the site of hundreds of environmental enforcement actions over the past 50 years. Contamination from refineries, chemical plants, and waste facilities has affected both surface water and groundwater in surrounding communities – many of them lower-income and historically underserved by environmental monitoring.
Check your address to see the most current data for your specific location. In a state with 30 million people and more contamination sources than any single monitoring program can cover, your local data is the only data that matters.