Dallas tap water: hard water, PFOA samples up to 6.3 ppt (EPA limit 4)

01 · What it means

What these readings mean for your home

Each reading in plain English: what it is, how Dallas compares with the other systems we track, and whether there’s anything to do. The tags follow EPA’s limits and reference levels where EPA has one; for hardness, which has no EPA limit, they follow the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scale and Minnesota’s health department. New to the acronyms? Every term, in plain English.

02 · The full results

Every PFAS result EPA recorded

In EPA’s national testing (sampled 2023 to 2024), Dallas’s highest samples reached PFOA and PFOS, the two PFAS “forever chemicals” EPA limits most tightly, at 6.3 and 5.1 ppt, above EPA’s 4 ppt limit. These are individual samples, not a compliance finding: water systems have until 2029 to meet the limit, judged on a yearly average.

03 · Where it comes from

The source, and who else drinks it

Dallas uses surface water from seven sources: the Elm Fork of the Trinity River and lakes Ray Roberts, Lewisville, Grapevine, Ray Hubbard, Tawakoni and Fork.

Dallas Water Utilities serves about 1.4 million people directly, and 25 other water systems buy water from it, serving about 1.5 million more. If you live in one of them, most of what’s on this page describes your water too, though hardness and disinfectant can change if your system blends in its own wells.

The East Side plant draws from lakes Ray Hubbard, Tawakoni and Fork, while the Elm Fork and Bachman plants take water from lakes Ray Roberts, Lewisville and Grapevine by way of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.

Dallas’s water system had no health-based violations in the five years through September 2026, according to EPA’s federal database.

04 · Questions

Dallas water questions

Is Dallas tap water safe to drink?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doesn’t grade a city’s tap water as safe or unsafe; it sets limits and records violations. By that record, Dallas’s water system had no health-based violations of federal drinking water rules in the five years through September 2026. Separately, EPA’s 2023–24 testing found PFOA or PFOS (two PFAS “forever chemicals”) samples above the 4 parts per trillion (ppt) limit that utilities must meet, on a yearly average, by 2029. A filter certified to NSF/ANSI 53 or 58 for PFOA and PFOS addresses it at the tap.

Is Dallas tap water hard?

Dallas tap water is hard: about 8.0 grains per gallon (138 milligrams per liter (mg/L)), according to published water quality data from Dallas Water Utilities (2023, the most recent figures we found).

Does Dallas tap water have PFAS?

In the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) national testing (sampled 2023 to 2024), Dallas’s highest samples reached PFOA and PFOS, the two PFAS “forever chemicals” EPA limits most tightly, at 6.3 and 5.1 parts per trillion (ppt), above EPA’s 4 ppt limit. These are individual samples, not a compliance finding: water systems have until 2029 to meet the limit, judged on a yearly average.

Does Dallas use chlorine or chloramine?

Chloramine. Dallas Water Utilities says it adds chlorine and ammonia, which combine to make chloramine, and also uses ozone to disinfect the water. It uses chloramine instead of chlorine to limit trihalomethane by-products.

Has Dallas’s water system had violations?

Dallas’s water system had no health-based violations in the five years through September 2026, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) federal database.