Brownwood Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Brownwood, Texas, in Brown County — the Brown County seat in central Texas, a ranching and agricultural city at the edge of the Edwards Plateau and the Rolling Plains, adjacent to Abilene in the west-central Texas corridor — receives its municipal water from the City of Brownwood Water Division, drawing from Lake Brownwood on the Pecan Bayou (Colorado River tributary) in Brown County.

The very hard 344 mg/L hardness and very high TDS of 994.3 mg/L reflect Lake Brownwood's central Texas Permian-Pennsylvanian carbonate-evaporite watershed. The Pecan Bayou drains the Rolling Plains terrain of Brown County — underlain by the Permian Cisco Group (calcareous shale, limestone, and minor gypsum), Permian Strawn Group, and Pennsylvanian carbonates (Smithwick Shale, Marble Falls Limestone on the Edwards Plateau margin). Carbonate and minor gypsum dissolution from these Permian-Pennsylvanian strata produces the very hard, high-TDS water at Lake Brownwood — consistent with the extreme values typical of central Texas reservoir supplies.

At 344 mg/L with TDS 994 mg/L, Brownwood's water is very hard. A whole-house water softener is strongly recommended and kitchen reverse osmosis filtration is advisable given the near-1000 TDS. The PFAS level of 10.3 ppt warrants a certified reverse osmosis filter — Dyess Air Force Base (Abilene, Taylor County — B-1 bomber base, major AFFF user in the upper Colorado-Pecan Bayou watershed), the central Texas ranching-agricultural PFAS background, and the Brown County industrial corridor contribute to Brownwood's elevated readings.