San Antonio water quality: where to find the facts

Water Filtration San Antonio is an independent referral service, not an installer or plumber. When you send the form, your details go to an independent local water treatment pro who can contact you and quote the work.

Where to find SAWS’s figures

• Annual water quality reports. SAWS’s website has a page to download its water quality reports; the 2026 report is listed there.
• Water quality FAQ. SAWS’s water quality concerns FAQ gives the typical hardness, 15 to 20 grains per gallon, and where it comes from: calcium carbonate naturally in water from the Edwards and the Trinity Aquifers.
• Your bill. Your water bill shows whether SAWS supplies your home. If another utility does, its report is the one to read.

This site does not summarize the full SAWS report or judge whether the water is safe; SAWS’s report and SAWS itself are the place for that. What this site can do is help you match what you read to the home equipment that deals with it.

Hardness: the figure to read first

For home water treatment in San Antonio, hardness is the number that matters first. SAWS says hard water is not a health hazard, but at 15 to 20 grains per gallon it is very hard on the US Geological Survey scale, where anything over 180 mg/L (a little over 10 grains) counts as very hard. That is what leaves crust on fixtures and spots on dishes. The hard water guide covers it in detail.

Taste, color and staining

The EPA sets non-mandatory secondary standards for 15 contaminants that affect taste, color and odor. It does not enforce them. They are a useful key when you are trying to explain what you see or taste:

Item	EPA secondary level	Effects
Iron	0.3 mg/L	Rusty color, sediment, metallic taste, reddish or orange staining
Manganese	0.05 mg/L	Black to brown color, black staining, bitter metallic taste
Chloride	250 mg/L	Salty taste
Total dissolved solids	500 mg/L	Hardness, deposits, colored water, staining, salty taste
pH	6.5 to 8.5	The recommended range

PFAS: the federal rule, dated

The EPA’s final rule on PFAS set enforceable limits of 4.0 parts per trillion for PFOA and for PFOS. On May 18, 2026 the EPA proposed two rules: one keeps those two limits and lets water systems request two more years, to 2031, to comply; the other would rescind the limits for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA (GenX) and the mixture hazard index. As of October 2026 both were still proposals; the EPA’s PFAS page has the current status. Your utility’s report is where to see what it found.

Turning a report into a decision

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s advice on home water treatment starts with “What contaminant do you want to remove or reduce?” and then asks you to choose a unit certified by NSF, Underwriter’s Laboratory or the Water Quality Association for that contaminant. Read the report, test your tap if you want your own figures, then pick equipment for the one or two things you want to change. See water treatment in San Antonio for the options by standard.

When to ask SAWS, and when to ask a pro

Questions about the supply itself, such as what was tested and what was found, belong with SAWS and its report. Questions about your house, such as scale on fixtures, a taste at one tap, or which equipment would change it, are for a water treatment pro who can test at your tap and quote a system certified for the job.

Private wells are different

No utility report covers a private well. The EPA says private well owners are responsible for delivering safe drinking water to their households, and advises testing every year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids and pH, using only laboratories certified for drinking water testing. The CDC gives the same yearly advice and says to test more often if the water’s taste, color or smell changes.

Questions people ask