Tap water · TX
Houston Public Works
EPA system ID TX1010013 · serves about 2,970,543 people. Every US utility must publish an annual water quality report — here’s the official one (2025), and below it, our plain-English translation.
Read the official report →What Houston Public Works found in 2025
34 detected analytes from the utility’s own annual report, hand-normalized — nothing was near or over a federal health-based limit.
| Detected | Level | Limit | % of limit | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haloacetic Acids | 40.8 ppb | 60 ppb | 68% | Within limit |
| Aluminum | 0.12 ppm | 0.2 ppm | 60% | Within limit |
| Total Trihalomethanes | 43.6 ppb | 80 ppb | 55% | Within limit |
| Total Dissolved Solids | 260 ppm | 500 ppm | 52% | Within limit |
| Combined Uranium | 13 ppb | 30 ppb | 43% | Within limit |
| Lead (90th percentile) | 5.1 ppb | 15 ppb | 34% | Within limit |
| Iron | 0.08 ppm | 0.3 ppm | 27% | Within limit |
| Manganese | 0.01 ppm | 0.05 ppm | 20% | Within limit |
| Arsenic | 1.7 ppb | 10 ppb | 17% | Within limit |
| Copper (90th percentile) | 0.22 ppm | 1.3 ppm | 17% | Within limit |
| Gross Beta | 8.2 pCi/L | 50 pCi/L | 16% | Within limit |
| Chloride | 38.4 ppm | 250 ppm | 15% | Within limit |
| Gross Alpha | 2 pCi/L | 15 pCi/L | 13% | Within limit |
| Barium | 0.18 ppm | 2 ppm | 9% | Within limit |
| Sulfate | 20.8 ppm | 250 ppm | 8% | Within limit |
| Nitrate | 0.35 ppm | 10 ppm | 4% | Within limit |
| Fluoride | 0.11 ppm | 4 ppm | 3% | Within limit |
| Atrazine | 0.08 ppb | 3 ppb | 3% | Within limit |
| Selenium | 1.2 ppb | 50 ppb | 2% | Within limit |
| Cyanide | 4 ppb | 200 ppb | 2% | Within limit |
| Nitrite | 0.02 ppm | 1 ppm | 2% | Within limit |
| Chlorite (Disinfectant) | 0.007 ppm | 1 ppm | 1% | Within limit |
| Di(2-Ethylhexyl) Phthalate | 0.03 ppb | 6 ppb | 1% | Within limit |
| Simazine | 0.01 ppb | 4 ppb | 0% | Within limit |
| Copper | 0.002 ppm | 1 ppm | 0% | Within limit |
| Zinc | 0.004 ppm | 5 ppm | 0% | Within limit |
| 2,4-D | 0.02 ppb | 70 ppb | 0% | Within limit |
| Di(2-Ethylhexyl) Adipate | 0.11 ppb | 400 ppb | 0% | Within limit |
| Thallium, Total | 0 ppb | 2 ppb | 0% | Within limit |
| Total Hardness as CaCO3 | 135.5 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
| Lithium — 2024 monitoring | 23.8 ppb | — | — | No federal limit |
| pH | 7.8 su | — | — | No federal limit |
| Total Coliforms | 2.7 % | — | — | No federal limit |
| Lead | 0 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
Levels and limits are as printed in the utility’s report (“limit” is the EPA MCL, action level, residual limit, or secondary guideline that applies to that row; “ND” = not detected). Utilities publish these reports annually — we re-check every covered utility each July, after the federal publication deadline. Detected doesn’t mean dangerous — most detections sit far below their limits. This is education, not medical advice.
Your tap, if it were a bottle
How Houston Public Works water stacks up against the bottled aisle
Same minerals, same units — the tap values below come from the utility’s report, placed next to the closest match in our bottled-water database.
| Mineral | Your tap | Closest bottled match |
|---|---|---|
| Total dissolved solids | 260 mg/L | Arrowhead at 270 mg/L |
| Sulfate | 20.8 mg/L | Solán de Cabras at 21.8 mg/L |
| Chloride | 38.4 mg/L | Buxton at 37 mg/L |
Tap values are the headline levels from the utility’s annual report (often a highest or average figure); bottled values are label- or report-derived. A closest match is a numeric comparison, not an equivalence or an endorsement.
Zip codes covered
77002 · 77003 · 77004 · 77006 · 77007 · 77008 · 77009 · 77010 · 77011 · 77012 · 77013 · 77016 · 77017 · 77018 · 77019 · 77020 · 77021 · 77022 · 77023 · 77025 · 77026 · 77027 · 77028 · 77030 · 77031 · 77033 · 77034 · 77035 · 77036 · 77042 · 77043 · 77045 · 77046 · 77048 · 77051 · 77054 · 77056 · 77057 · 77061 · 77063 · 77071 · 77072 · 77074 · 77075 · 77076 · 77077 · 77078 · 77079 · 77080 · 77081 · 77082 · 77085 · 77087 · 77088 · 77091 · 77092 · 77093 · 77096 · 77098 · 77099
Boundary zips partially served by other systems are deliberately unlisted — check your exact zip.