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Texas Groundwater and Contamination




Texas' groundwater policy adhere's to the Legislature's goal of non-degradation of the state's groundwater resources. Regulated activities such as pollution discharge and waste disposal should be conducted in a manner that preserves present and future uses of groundwater. Impacted groundwater should be restored, if feasible.

Most of Texas' major and minor aquifers provide safe and sufficient water for all uses. Existing groundwater quality in Texas varies among the major and minor aquifers. In a small percentage of wells, contaminants such as nitrate, sulfate and total dissolved solids have exceeded federal standards. There is considerable debate as to whether contaminants such as nitrate and sulfate are naturally occurring or the result of man-made activities. However, no controversy exists over the documentation of groundwater contamination cases listed in the Joint Groundwater Monitoring and Contamination Report (see the TGPC Publications webpage for the current version).

  • An interactive, online map ("Viewer") of the cases in the Joint Groundwater Monitoring and Contamination Report is available that provides users with the ability to query the database for the current and some previous years, obtain spatial relationship information about these cases, and download the data. See the User Guide for more information.

The most commonly reported contaminants come from petroleum storage tank facilities in heavily populated areas of the state such as Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and El Paso. Contaminants are often released from leaking petroleum storage tanks that include gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum products. Regulations regarding petroleum storage tanks should reduce further threats of contamination.

 

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