Texas Private Well Water Quality 2026

Texas’s PFAS Problem — Military Bases, Biosolids, and a County in Crisis

Texas has multiple, distinct PFAS contamination pathways affecting private wells — and until 2025, none of them generated the kind of state-level response that the scale of the problem demands. The most dramatic recent development was in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, where officials declared a state of disaster in February 2025 after extensive testing found PFAS contamination in soil, groundwater, surface water, and animal tissue. Well water near biosolid application sites tested positive for PFAS at levels several hundred times higher than EPA safe drinking water limits. Fish and cattle deaths were linked to the contamination.

The Johnson County crisis traces to biosolids — treated sewage sludge sold as fertilizer — produced by Synagro at Fort Worth’s Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility. These biosolids, applied to farmland from 2022 onwards, carried PFAS that leached into groundwater and contaminated private wells. Governor Abbott’s office declined to join the disaster declaration. By December 2025, affected farmers and residents said their calls for help had “fallen on deaf ears.” Five Johnson County farmers had filed a class-action lawsuit against Synagro, refiled in Dallas County in April 2025 to include additional plaintiffs.

The Johnson County crisis traces to biosolids — treated sewage sludge sold as fertilizer — produced by Synagro at Fort Worth’s Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility. These biosolids, applied to farmland from 2022 onwards, carried PFAS that leached into groundwater and contaminated private wells. Governor Abbott’s office declined to join the disaster declaration. By December 2025, affected farmers and residents said their calls for help had “fallen on deaf ears.” Five Johnson County farmers had filed a class-action lawsuit against Synagro, refiled in Dallas County in April 2025 to include additional plaintiffs.

The biosolids crisis is distinct from — and compounded by — the military base contamination problem that predates it. Firefighting foam (AFFF) used at Texas military installations for decades has contaminated groundwater around multiple bases. Near the former Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock County, the Air Force sampled over 450 private drinking water wells and found that 185 private wells and three public wells exceeded EPA health advisory levels for PFAS. Residents in those communities had unknowingly consumed contaminated water for decades — PFAS were first detected in the area’s private wells in September 2017, though contamination is believed to have started earlier. At Fort Worth’s Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, groundwater tested as high as 29,800 ppt of PFAS — over 7,400 times the current federal limit of 4 ppt.

Roughly 471,000 Texans live within three miles of military sites where PFAS contamination from firefighting foam has been documented, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Near bases in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, contamination levels thousands of times above safe limits have been recorded.

Arsenic in Texas Well Water

Arsenic is a significant and documented threat to Texas well water, rooted in the state’s geology. Research by the Bureau of Economic Geology at UT Austin found that approximately 6% of Texas wells exceed the EPA’s maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 µg/L (10 ppb) for arsenic — but that figure conceals severe regional hotspots. In the southern High Plains aquifer, 32% of wells exceed the MCL. In the southwestern Gulf Coast aquifer, 29% of wells exceed the limit.

The USGS estimates that approximately 200,000 Texans using private domestic wells are potentially exposed to arsenic above EPA standards under normal conditions — rising higher during drought, which Texas has experienced repeatedly. West Texas, the Panhandle, and the Gulf Coast region carry the highest natural arsenic risk. Arsenic is colourless, odourless and tasteless, and long-term exposure is linked to cancers of the bladder, lung and skin, as well as cardiovascular disease and nerve damage.

Radionuclides — including uranium and radium — are a further naturally occurring risk in Texas groundwater, particularly in the Hill Country, Permian Basin, and parts of the Gulf Coast. Texas public water systems have historically recorded among the highest rates of radionuclide violations in the US. Private wells in these regions face the same underlying geology with no mandatory testing requirement.

Nitrate, Bacteria, and Agricultural Contamination

Texas is one of the most agriculturally intensive states in the US, and nitrate from fertiliser runoff is a documented risk to shallow wells across farming regions — particularly the High Plains, the Rio Grande Valley, and the eastern agricultural belt. The Texas Water Development Board notes that nitrate and nitrite have exceeded federal standards in a percentage of tested wells, with considerable regional variation. Nitrate contamination is immediately dangerous for infants under six months and carries longer-term cancer and thyroid risks for adults.

Coliform bacteria contamination is a risk in older wells with poorly sealed casings, wells subject to flooding (a recurring reality across much of Texas), and any well within proximity of a poorly maintained septic system. Texas has no unified statewide standard for septic-to-well separation distances — requirements are set county by county, meaning protections vary widely across the state.

Petroleum-related contamination is an additional Texas-specific risk. The Texas Groundwater Protection Committee’s Joint Groundwater Monitoring and Contamination Report documents petroleum storage tank leaks as the most commonly reported source of groundwater contamination, concentrated in heavily populated areas such as Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth — but with documented cases statewide. Well owners in proximity to former or active oil and gas activity should consider testing for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other petroleum byproducts.

Regulatory Situation for Texas Well Owners

Private residential wells in Texas are not subject to testing requirements under state or federal law. The TCEQ’s authority over groundwater is limited — state law does not provide any single state agency with authority to regulate private well water quality. Groundwater use is primarily managed through local Groundwater Conservation Districts (GCDs), not all areas of Texas fall within a GCD, and none have mandatory private well testing requirements.

Texas has set no state PFAS MCLs. It follows federal EPA limits for PFAS in public water systems, but those rules apply only to community water systems — not private wells. As of 2026, Texas public water systems must complete initial PFAS monitoring by 2027 and address violations by 2029. Private well owners have no equivalent timeline and no notification right.

In July 2025, the Texas Legislature failed to advance five bills that would have begun addressing the PFAS problem — including measures on PFAS in biosolids, fracking fluid, and firefighting foams. None reached the governor’s desk. Texas remains one of approximately 36 states with no state-level PFAS drinking water standards of its own.

Check our Texas municipal water quality page for city-by-city tap water data, or use our live boil water notice tracker for active advisories across the state.

Known High-Risk Areas in Texas

If you live near any of the following locations, well water testing is urgent — not precautionary.

How to Test Your Texas Well Water — and What to Do Next

Given Texas’s contamination profile — PFAS from multiple sources, arsenic in major aquifer systems, radionuclides across western regions, and agricultural nitrate in rural areas — every private well owner in the state should treat testing as essential, not optional. PFAS, arsenic, uranium and radium are all colourless and odourless; there is no way to detect them without laboratory analysis.

To find a certified laboratory in Texas, use the TCEQ’s certified lab list at tceq.texas.gov or contact your local county health department. The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension also provides county-level guidance on common contaminants and testing options. For wells near the high-risk areas listed above, PFAS testing should be treated as immediate.

For treatment, our well water filter guide covers reverse osmosis for PFAS, arsenic and radionuclides, UV disinfection for bacteria, and whole-house well systems for comprehensive protection. You can also browse our full water filter solutions page or check your ZIP code for local water quality context.

For Texas city-by-city municipal data, see our Texas state water quality page, with specific pages for Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. For other Southern well water risks, see our pages on Michigan wells and the private well water directory to find your state.