What's in Buda water, by the numbers

Most Buda homes are served by the City of Buda's system. About 70 percent of the supply is Canyon Lake water that travels down the Guadalupe River and gets treated at the San Marcos surface water plant, which GBRA operates. The other 30 percent comes from five city wells in the Edwards Aquifer, treated at each well site.

A third source is plumbed in and waiting: the Alliance Regional Water Authority pipeline, carrying Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer water, has been available to Buda since early 2025. The city's latest report says it hasn't taken water from it yet. When it does, the blend (and the numbers on this page) will shift.

One caveat: some addresses in and around Buda are served by other utilities, like Goforth Water Supply or Monarch Water, rather than the city. Your water bill says which system is yours, and the free test works the same either way.

The table above is the safety layer. It covers regulated substances with legal limits, monitored constantly and publicly reported. That system works, and Buda's water passes it.

Hardness and chlorine taste live in a different category. The EPA doesn't set health limits for them because they aren't health problems. They're quality-of-life items. In fact, Buda's annual report doesn't publish a hardness number at all, so the figures up top come from TCEQ's own sampling of the city's treated water. They're also what you actually notice every day, and what treatment exists to fix. Scale on your fixtures and pool-taste in your glass are optional. The safety layer stays the utility's job either way.