Well water in Hood County, Texas

In Hood County, none of 59 tested well samples exceeded the EPA limit for fluoride, based on public data from Texas Water Development Board Groundwater Database and USGS Water Quality Portal.

The strongest signal is coliform bacteria: Recommended for every private well, every year, too few samples to carry the headline but first on the test list below.

247 test results across 12 contaminants from at least 28 wells, 1956 to 2011; fluoride has the most at 59. Data refreshed September 15, 2026.

Compiled by Nick at Well Water Nerd from public records. How these pages are built

TWDB samples an ambient monitoring network of wells on a rotation, so these describe aquifers, not a survey of homeowners' tests.

An estimated 10,936 people in Hood County get their drinking water from a private well, per USGS 2015 county water use. That is about 20% of residents.

Separately, the USGS national arsenic model estimates that 1% of the 10,936 people on private wells in Hood County draw water above 10 ug/L (the model's range is <1% to 2%), from geology and well depth rather than local tests.

What individual samples found

Each row summarizes every public sample for that contaminant inside Hood County. Above limit means above the EPA maximum contaminant level; where EPA has no enforceable limit, the row shows a health guideline or nuisance level instead.

Contaminant	Above limit	Samples	Detected	Median	Highest	Limit
Fluoride 1956 to 2011	0%	59	92%	0.3	3.2	4 mg/L EPA limit
Chloride 1956 to 2011	no limit	59	100%	23	1,249	250 mg/L nuisance level
Sodium 1956 to 2011	no limit	59	100%	63	313	20 mg/L health guideline
Iron 1960 to 2011	no limit	15	73%	104	2,600	300 ug/L nuisance level

Sampled fewer than 10 times, too few to summarize: Gross alpha (5), Radium (226 + 228) (8), Nitrate (9), Arsenic (8), Copper (8), Lead (8), Uranium (1), Manganese (8).

Closer than the county

See the sampled wells near your address

The same records, drawn around one point: which wells within a few miles were sampled and what they found, how deep the wells next to you were drilled, and any leaking tank or cleanup site within a mile.

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What this means

Among contaminants with a federal limit, no tested sample in Hood County came back above it. That is reassuring, but sampling is uneven: wells that were never tested are not in this data.

Chloride and Iron are widespread in local groundwater. They are mainly a staining and taste problem, but high manganese also carries a health advisory for infants.

What to test for in Hood County

1
Coliform bacteria
Recommended for every private well, every year.
2
Nitrate
Recommended for every private well, especially near farms or septic systems.
3
Gross alpha
Above the limit in 2 of 5 local samples; too few to quote a rate.
4
Radium (226 + 228)
Above the limit in 1 of 8 local samples; too few to quote a rate.
5
Chloride
Detected in 100% of local samples.
6
Fluoride
Detected in 92% of local samples.
7
Iron
Detected in 73% of local samples.
8
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
38 leaking underground storage tank sites on record locally.

Test your Hood County well for coliform bacteria, nitrate and gross alpha

Certified lab analysis of your own tap water, bottles and prepaid return shipping included. The Essential well panel covers arsenic, uranium, nitrate, lead, copper, manganese, iron, sodium and bacteria; radon and PFAS are add-ons.

Order the Tap Score well water test kit, from $209 Already tested? Upload the report

Just want bacteria checked first? Tap Score coliform and E. coli test, $99. Coliform and E. coli are the tests every well needs every year.

Want a quick look before paying for a lab? Home well water test strips on Amazon check hardness, iron, pH and nitrate in minutes. They are a screen, not a result: arsenic, bacteria, uranium and PFAS need a certified lab.

Affiliate links: the merchant pays us a commission and the price is the same for you. It does not change what the data above says. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Where to get a well tested in Texas: certified labs, state programs and prices.

Already have results back? Get your lab report read against the Hood County numbers, $29. Every line explained, ranked by what matters, with the fix for each.

The rock under Hood County

Edwards-Trinity aquifer system

Sandstone and carbonate-rock. Layered sandstone and limestone means a well may draw from either. Hardness and iron are routine, and the limestone layers can carry bacteria and nitrate from the surface quickly, so test for both yearly.

Classification from the USGS Principal Aquifers of the United States (national map, 2003 edition, GIS release 2015), read at the county centroid. A single well can sit in a different unit, especially near a boundary.

Official help in Texas

Two places to start that are not selling anything: the state program that answers private well questions, and its list of labs certified to run drinking water tests. A certified lab is the difference between a result you can act on and a number.

Private Wells, Texas Groundwater Protection Committee
Environmental Laboratory (NELAP) Accreditation, TCEQ

Contamination sources on record in Hood County

TCEQ records 38 leaking underground storage tank sites in Hood County, among 41 regulated sites in total. Groundwater does not follow property lines, so a well within a few hundred feet of one of these is worth testing for what that site could release.

38: leaking underground storage tank sitesGasoline and heating oil that leaked from tanks move through groundwater as benzene, MTBE and other volatile organic compounds.
3: lined landfills and transfer facilities

Treatment that fits the local profile

Iron

Oxidizing filter whole-house; Water softener (low levels); Aeration plus filtration

Systems we would look at first

Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one, the merchant pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we list or what the data says.

For iron

Iron and manganese oxidizing filter

whole-house, at the point of entry, about $1,800

Air-injection or greensand media; fixes staining at the source.

Free, no obligation

Get on the list for a free in-home water test in Hood County

No water treatment company serves Hood County through Well Water Nerd yet. We are signing licensed companies on county by county: they test at your tap for free, walk you through the numbers, and quote treatment only if something needs fixing. Leave your details and you are first in line. Nothing is shared until a company joins for Hood County, and you get an email naming it first.

Common questions

How often should I test a private well in Hood County?

Test for bacteria and nitrate every year. Test once for arsenic, uranium, radon, fluoride, manganese and PFAS, then again every three to five years or after any change in taste, color, or plumbing.

Counties near Hood County

Closest first. Groundwater does not stop at a line on a map, so the next county over is a fair second opinion.

Want the numbers themselves? Download the Texas dataset as CSV, every county and town, with the sources named.

Sources

Texas Water Development Board Groundwater Database: 242 samples in Hood County. Water quality samples from the Texas Water Development Board Groundwater Database, collected by TWDB, groundwater conservation districts and cooperators. Retrieved September 9, 2026.
USGS Water Quality Portal: 5 samples in Hood County. Data from the Water Quality Portal, a service of USGS, EPA and USDA; groundwater samples collected by USGS and cooperators. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
USGS national arsenic model (Ayotte 2017): estimated share of 10,936 people on private wells in Hood County above 10 ug/L of arsenic, from geology, well depth and land use. County estimates of domestic well users with arsenic above 10 ug/L from the USGS national logistic regression model (Ayotte, Medalie and Qi, 2017), with private well population from the USGS 2015 county water-use compilation (Dieter and others, 2018). Retrieved September 15, 2026.
TCEQ regulated sites: 41 regulated sites located in Hood County. Leaking petroleum storage tank sites, state Superfund sites and municipal solid waste landfills from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Retrieved September 9, 2026.

Non-detects count as samples and are treated as zero when computing medians. Exactly at the limit counts as not above it. A sample belongs to the town containing the well's reported coordinates.