Recently the City of Brownwood and other area water providers released the 2022 Consumer Confidence Reports, an annual report on the quality of local drinking water. Once a year the Texas Council on Environmental Quality tests treated water from the Brown County Water Improvement District and the local retail water providers, such as the Cities of Brownwood, Bangs, and Early, plus rural water providers like the Brookesmith Special Utility District and the Zephyr Water Supply Corp. The Consumer Confidence Reports are full of numbers and scientific terms that are difficult for most lay persons to understand, including this writer. But we dug into it and compared our local reports to a handful of other Texas cities within about a 100 mile radius.
All of the local water retailers have similar numbers, because they all get their water from the Brown County Water Improvement District, but the numbers can vary a little bit as the water moves through the various distribution systems. Below we list various tested elements from the reports, with explanations as to the source of the contaminant or constituent element and the maximum level allowed. Then we list the tested levels of the various towns, in order from lowest to highest, so you can see how our local water compares to the other cities.
In most cases the tested contaminant levels in our local water supplies are on the low to average range. Overall, our local water supplies compare very favorably to the other cities.
The first four elements (barium, cyanide, flouride, and nitrate) are inorganic substances that are naturally occurring in water.
BARIUM
Source: Discharge of drilling wastes, discharge from metal refineries, erosion of natural deposits.
Maximum Contaminant Level: 2 ppm (parts per million)
Brady – 0.0482 ppm
Llano – 0.0531
Burnet – 0.0848
Granbury – 0.11
Brownwood – 0.128
Stephenville – 0.14
Breckenridge – 0.15
Abilene – 0.17
San Angelo – 0.19
CYANIDE
Source: Discharge from plastic and fertilizer factories, discharge from steel/metal factories
Maximum Contaminant Level: 2 ppm
Brownwood – 0.12 ppm
Llano – 0.18
Burnet – 0.19
Granbury – 0.226
San Angelo – 0.909
Breckenridge – 1.17
Abilene – 1.45
FLOURIDE
Source: Erosion of natural deposits, water additive which promotes strong teeth, discharge from fertilizer and aluminum factories
Maximum Contaminant Level: 4 ppm
Brownwood – 0.19
Granbury – 0.20
Llano – 0.20
Lampasas – 0.26
Breckenridge – 0.20
Stephenville – 0.30
San Angelo – 0.30
Brady – 0.71
Abilene – 0.80
Burnet – 0.90
NITRATE
Source: Runoff from fertilizer use, leaching from septic tanks or sewage, erosion of natural deposits
Maximum Contaminant Level: 10 ppm
Lampasas – 0.06
Brownwood – 0.08
Llano – 0.08
Brookesmith SUD – 0.10
Bangs – 0.12
Early – 0.13
Abilene – 0.222
Breckenridge – 0.225
San Angelo – 0.23
Zephyr – 0.26
Stephenville – 1.0
Granbury – 1.0
Burnet – 4.0
RADIOACTIVE – BETA/PHOTON EMITTERS
Source: Decay of natural and man-made deposits
Maximum Contaminant Level: 50 mrem/yr.
Stephenville – 5.5 mrem/yr.
Burnet – 5.9
Brownwood – 6.1
Abilene – 6.6
Breckenridge – 8.2
San Angelo – 11.8
Brady – 72.6
TOTAL HALOACETIC ACIDS
Source: By-product of drinking water disinfection
Maximum Contaminant Level: 60 ppb (parts per billion)
Brady – 1.0
Stephenville – 8.0
Granbury – 9.0
Abilene – 20.0
San Angelo – 21.0
Burnet – 21.0
Bangs – 22.0
Early – 22.0
Breckenridge – 22.0
Zephyr – 23.0
Brownwood – 24.0
Lampasas – 25.0
Brookesmith SUD – 26.0
TOTAL TRIHALOMETHANES
Source: By-product of drinking water disinfection
Maximum Contaminant Level: 80 parts per billion
Brady – 5.0 ppb
Granbury -14.0
Stephenville – 15.0
Llano – 16.0
Burnet – 27.0
Bangs – 45.0
Abilene – 51.0
Early – 56.0
Brownwood – 58.0
Breckenridge – 59.0
Brookesmith SUD – 64.0
San Angelo – 64.0
Zephyr WSC – 67.0
Lampasas – 69.0
LEAD
Source: corrosion of household plumbing systems, erosion of natural deposits
Action Level: 15 parts per billion
Zephyr – 1.1 ppb
Granbury – 1.5
Early – 1.7
Brownwood – 3.0
Stephenville – 3.1
Burnet – 3.16
Brady – 3.21
San Angelo – 4.0
Llano – 4.4
Lampasas – 5.1
COPPER
Source: corrosion of household plumbing systems, erosion of natural deposits, leaching from preservatives
Action Level: 1.3 parts per million
Granbury – 0.072
Early – 0.074
Bangs – 0.101
San Angelo – 0.15
Llano – 0.15
Brownwood – 0.18
Stephenville – 0.18
Zephyr – 0.19
Lampasas – 0.2284
Abilene – 0.36
Brookesmith SUD – 0.573
Burnet – 0.647
Brady – 0.674
TURBIDITY
Turbidity is a measurement of the clarity or cloudiness of water. It has no health effects.
Turbidity Limits: 95% of samples < 0.3 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units). The numbers below are the highest single measurement.
Granbury – 0.06 NTU (Percent of samples meeting NTU limit: 100%)
Brownwood – 0.142 (100%)
San Angelo – 0.23 (100%)
Abilene – 0.28 (100%)
Llano – 0.60 (99%)
Burnet – 0.60 (99%)
Breckenridge – 10.0 (97%)