Free testing, with limits
Texas A&M holds county well screenings around Texas, some free and some for a small fee. Check which tests it includes before you count on it for manganese.
Texas's private well pageManganese in Texas well water, by county
Manganese is worth checking in 3 of the 19 Texas counties with 10 or more tested wells, and rare in the rest. A county's share tells you how likely a problem is nearby. Only a test of your own well tells you what's in it.
How Texas compares with the rest of the country
Across Texas, about 1 in 45 tested wells had manganese over the EPA health advisory of 0.3 mg/L (23 of 1,033). Across all tested wells in the US it's about 1 in 7. That's less often than in the country as a whole. Counties still differ, so check yours below.
Why it matters: High levels over many years may affect the nervous system, and babies are more sensitive to it. It also leaves black stains.
Manganese dissolves out of rock and soil, especially in water with little oxygen.
Manganese in tested wells, county by county
Share of each county's tested wells with at least one result over the EPA health advisory of 0.3 mg/L. Counties need 10 or more tested wells to be listed. Widespread means 15% or more, worth checking 5 to 15%, rare under 5%.
| County | Wells tested | Wells over the limit | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tarrant County | 27 | Worth checking | |
| Wilson County | 15 | Worth checking | |
| El Paso County | 54 | Worth checking | |
| Yoakum County | 22 | Rare | |
| Hays County | 29 | Rare | |
| Pecos County | 33 | Rare | |
| Harris County | 148 | Rare | |
| Bexar County | 102 | Rare | |
| Montgomery County | 35 | Rare | |
| Travis County | 28 | Rare | |
| Medina County | 25 | Rare | |
| Comal County | 24 | Rare | |
| Terry County | 21 | Rare | |
| Brazoria County | 20 | Rare | |
| Uvalde County | 20 | Rare | |
| Gaines County | 19 | Rare | |
| Williamson County | 19 | Rare | |
| Atascosa County | 10 | Rare | |
| Lamb County | 10 | Rare |
* Likely overstated. These shares come from a narrow set of wells, so they probably run high for the county as a whole:
- Tarrant County: All of these tests come from the US Geological Survey, mostly before 2013 in one small part of the county, so this likely overstates it.
126 more Texas counties have 1 to 9 tested wells for manganese, too few to rate.
Download this table (CSV) ยท Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0
Where to get your well tested for manganese in Texas
A lab Texas certifies
Ask for manganese by name. Results from a certified lab count for a home sale or a loan.
Labs certified by TexasA mail-in kit
Fill the bottles at your kitchen tap and mail them back. We mark the kits that include manganese.
Compare kitsKeep reading about wells in Texas
- Well water testing in Texas: how to get tested and what turns up statewide
- Manganese in well water: where it comes from, what it does and how to remove it
- Nitrate in Texas wells, by county
- Arsenic in Texas wells, by county
- Uranium in Texas wells, by county
- Lead in Texas wells, by county
Questions people ask about manganese in Texas
Is there manganese in Texas well water?
Manganese is worth checking in 3 of the 19 Texas counties with 10 or more tested wells, and rare in the rest. Across Texas, about 1 in 45 tested wells had manganese over the EPA health advisory of 0.3 mg/L (23 of 1,033). Across all tested wells in the US it's about 1 in 7. That's less often than in the country as a whole. Counties still differ, so check yours below.
Where can I get my well tested for manganese in Texas?
Texas A&M holds county well screenings around Texas, some free and some for a small fee. If that doesn't cover you, use a lab certified by Texas for drinking water, or a mail-in kit that includes manganese from a certified lab.
See Texas's list of certified labs, or compare mail-in kits.
Where these numbers come from
- Lab tests: Water Quality Portal (USGS and EPA), well samples since 2000. A well counts as over if any of its tests was over the EPA health advisory of 0.3 mg/L. Wells tested for studies and monitoring, not a random sample of homes.
- Likely overstated: our own check of who tested the wells, when and where. How we check.
- State programs and links: Texas Water Development Board and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).