Water Quality

To ensure quality water at the tap, our state-certified laboratory conducts numerous analyses on the thousands of samples collected each year. We publish the levels of all regulated contaminants detected in our drinking water in an annual Water Quality Report.

Additionally, the water providers we service also test water before they distribute it to residents and businesses and produce their own annual water quality report. Most cities or water utilities have those available on their websites.

Taste and Odor

In addition to making sure our water is safe to drink, NTMWD also works hard to meet customer expectations for water's aesthetic characteristics, taste, odor, and appearance.

Unpleasant tastes and odors are the most common cause of customer complaints; however, most contaminants that cause aesthetic problems in drinking water are not considered a threat to human health. Our Environmental Services team tests hundreds of thousands of water quality samples annually and publishes these results for the public.

Water Hardness

Hard water build-up comes from naturally occurring minerals - such as calcium bicarbonate, magnesium carbonate, iron, lime, and others - that are present in lakes and other water sources across North Texas. The treated water supplied by NTMWD is considered "moderately hard" primarily due to the minerals found in Lavon Lake.

While these minerals pose no harm to human health or safety, they can cause spots on clean dishes and "lime scale" on plumbing fixtures from the leftover mineral deposits once hard water has evaporated. You may want to seek guidance from a licensed plumber about maintaining plumbing fixtures and water heaters which can build up with hard water mineral deposits over time.

To determine the grains per gallon of hardness of your water, refer to our water quality reports and divide the total hardness (mg/L) by 17.12. The hardness is also measured by the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) on water quality reports.