Water Softeners and Water Treatment in Dallas County, TX

A December 2023 memo from the City of Dallas puts the water's hardness at 120 to 155 mg/L as calcium carbonate. The same memo rates 121 to 180 as hard water, so Dallas runs from the top of moderately hard into the middle of the hard band. The department disinfects with chloramine rather than chlorine.

An undated department page counts 1,213,600 people served in Dallas, another 1,002,543 in wholesale customer cities that buy treated water, and 210,867 in cities that buy untreated water. That page gives the numbers but not the city names, so your own city's annual water quality report is the place to confirm whether Dallas is your supplier.

For wells that draw from these aquifers, here is what the Texas Water Development Board reports. It describes the Trinity as a major aquifer across much of central and northeastern Texas and the Woodbine as a minor aquifer in northeast Texas. In outcrop areas the board calls Trinity water fresh but very hard. It says dissolved solids rise with depth, reaching between 1,000 and 5,000 milligrams per liter, and that sulfate and chloride tend to increase with depth too.

The Woodbine is different. Its upper zone yields limited water that tends to be very high in iron, and the board notes that the aquifer's quality and yield vary with depth. Dissolved iron in groundwater, USGS notes, can stain laundry, sinks, bathtubs and toilets a brownish red.

TCEQ does not regulate private drinking water wells; the owner is responsible for maintaining and testing them. The CDC advises testing well water at least once every year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids and pH.