Ector County, Texas: drinking water report. Ector County in the Permian Basin of West Texas has about 166,000 residents, with Odessa as the primary city.
Ector County in the Permian Basin of West Texas has about 166,000 residents, with Odessa as the primary city. Water scarcity defines the county's relationship with water – the area receives less than 15 inches of rainfall annually. Ector County draws from a blend of groundwater and surface water imported from the Colorado River Municipal Water District and the Permian Basin Water Alliance. The Ogallala Aquifer underlying the region has been declining for decades.
Total dissolved solids (TDS) in Ector County's groundwater regularly exceed 1,000 mg/L – well above the secondary standard of 500 mg/L. According to TCEQ's 2024 water quality data, some production wells in the county show TDS above 2,000 mg/L, driven by the arid climate and heavy mineral content of the aquifer. The water is safe to drink by EPA standards but tastes brackish and leaves mineral deposits.
The oil and gas industry's century-long presence adds another dimension. A 2024 Texas Railroad Commission report documented 47 orphaned oil and gas wells within Ector County boundaries – abandoned wells that can provide pathways for produced water and hydrocarbons to contaminate shallow aquifers. PFAS from oilfield firefighting operations have also been detected at low levels in some monitoring wells.
Ector County residents know their water is hard and mineral-heavy. What is less visible is the potential for hydrocarbon contamination from the dense network of active and abandoned oil and gas wells throughout the county.
Check your water for the latest results at your address. For high-TDS water, reverse osmosis is the only effective household treatment – it removes dissolved minerals that softeners and carbon filters cannot. Our water filter guide covers systems designed for high-mineral-content water. Pull your detailed report for trends, and visit our Texas page for statewide data.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Ector County, TX.
The EPA places Ector County, TX in Zone 3 - the EPA's lowest-risk category, with a predicted average indoor radon level below 2 pCi/L. Zone maps predict an area's radon potential from geology and existing indoor readings; they say nothing about a specific house. Testing is the only way to know your own level.
49% of homes in Ector County, TX were built before 1980, and 5% before 1950. Residential lead paint was banned in 1978, so housing age is the strongest available proxy for lead-paint exposure. This describes the county's housing stock, not any one home.
Modelled annual fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) in Ector County, TX averages 7.4 µg/m³, within the EPA's annual standard of 9 µg/m³. These are CDC modelled county estimates rather than readings from a specific monitor.
How radon zones work · Air quality by county · Lead exposure guide
2 public water systems serving Ector County, TX have EPA lead testing on record. The reported lead sample skews toward systems that already flagged a problem, so its exceedance rate is not directly comparable with other areas. 1 water systems serving Ector County, TX carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule | 1 |
Source: EPA Lead and Copper Rule 90th-percentile tap sampling and EPA SDWIS Safe Drinking Water Act enforcement records, aggregated from the public water systems serving this county. Figures are counts of water systems, not a test of any individual home or tap.