Why Central Texas Homeowners Choose Culligan For Well Water Treatment
Our systems are second to none. The real advantage is that we make treating well water simple.
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We Treat Your Water, Not A Category
In this part of Texas the question that decides everything is how deep your well goes. The Trinity is not one aquifer, it is a stack of three, and they do not give up the same water. The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District identifies the Cow Creek formation in the Middle Trinity as the main producer for wells in western Hays County, and the state’s groundwater modeling puts the Middle Trinity’s median dissolved solids around 410 mg/L against roughly 760 mg/L for the Lower Trinity underneath it. Nitrate behaves the same way, falling off as wells get deeper. Two houses on the same ranch road can pull water that needs two different systems. Your well log tells us the depth and the formation. The water tells us the rest, which is why we won’t quote a system over the phone.
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Texas Never Tested Your Well. It Never Will.
This is not an exaggeration and it is worth reading twice. The Texas Groundwater Protection Committee states it outright: private wells are largely unregulated, and there are no federal or state requirements for monitoring drinking water quality the way there are for public systems. It goes further, noting there are no right-to-know reports telling well owners what is in their water and no requirements for treatment. When your well was drilled, a licensed driller had to file a report with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation within 30 days. That report covers depth, casing, location and construction method. It contains no water quality test of any kind. If you are in Blanco County or the Hill Country part of Hays County, your district requires you to register the well. Registration is not a test either. Nobody has ever checked what comes out of it, and nobody is going to.
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Expert Installation, And We Maintain It
Culligan has been in water treatment for more than 85 years and it’s all we do. Your local Culligan delivers, installs, and maintains the system for you, so there’s no shipping damage, no unboxing, no guessing about install location, and no third-party service line when it needs attention. Schedule an appointment, then enjoy the water.
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Make Your Water Work For You
On the fence about whether you need treatment? These are the returns that pay a system off over time.
- Over $437 a year saved on soaps, shampoos and detergents in soft water
- Over $115 a year in gas water heater energy savings
- Up to 50% more life out of dishwashers and washing machines
- No more replacing fixtures and appliances that scale ruined early
Local Resources
Central Texas Well Water
How Hard Is Well Water
In The Hill Country?
Very hard, and the state has said so for a long time. The Texas Water Development Board’s survey of Lower Cretaceous groundwater in the Hill Country describes Trinity Group water as very hard, with hardness running 250 to 500 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is roughly 15 to 29 grains per gallon. The report notes that many samples came in above that range. Those figures date from 1983 and cover wells of mixed types rather than a survey of homes alone, so treat them as the shape of the problem rather than a prediction for your address. For context, San Marcos city water is reported around 269 ppm, close to 16 grains, and that is water a utility has already treated. Nobody in this area starts from soft. Well owners start harder than that and with far more variation from one property to the next. Test for it.
Why Does My Water Smell Like Sulfur
Or Taste Salty?
Both trace back to the same thing: sulfate, and where your well sits in the Trinity. State reporting describes the Upper Trinity as being in contact with soluble evaporite zones that push sulfate up, the Middle Trinity as picking up much higher sulfate as it runs downdip to the east, and the Lower Trinity as carrying high dissolved solids and sulfate with a sodium-chloride character that reads as salty. Groundwater modeling flags slightly to moderately saline water in the downdip eastern parts of these aquifers across Blanco, Comal, Hays and Travis counties by name. Sulfate is also the raw material that sulfate-reducing bacteria convert into hydrogen sulfide, which is the rotten egg smell. No agency publishes a figure for how many Texas wells have it, so we won’t invent one, but the chemistry that produces it is documented right here. Dissolved solids and sulfur are separate fixes, and a test tells us which one you have.
Is There Radium In
Central Texas Groundwater?
Not in the aquifers under this service area, and the confusion behind that question is worth clearing up because it is easy to fall into. The Texas Groundwater Protection Committee lists the aquifers where gross alpha activity runs above the federal limit. The ones named are the Gulf Coast, the Ogallala, the Edwards-Trinity (Plateau), the Hickory, the Dockum and the Seymour. The Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone) that feeds San Marcos Springs is not on that list. Neither is the Hill Country portion of the Trinity, and neither is the Carrizo-Wilcox out toward Lockhart. The trap is the naming. Edwards-Trinity (Plateau) is a different aquifer more than a hundred miles west of here, and it shares both words with the two aquifers that sit under us. Texas does have a genuine radium problem in the Hickory Aquifer up in the Llano Uplift, but that is 40 to 70 miles northwest of Johnson City and outside where we work. If a search result told you your water has radium, check which aquifer it meant.
TREATMENT OPTIONS
Three Problems, Three Fixes For Your
Central Texas Well
Sulfur & Iron Filtration
Water Softening
Drinking Water Systems
The Proof
Why Do Central Texas Homeowners TRUST Our
Water Treatment Systems?
Culligan helped us every step of the way. We are very satisfied with the system we chose and now have great water throughout the house.
The service is excellent and your products are outstanding. I am simply enjoying this product and will surely recommend to my relatives and friends.
Prompt professional service. Reliable technician services Culligan water softener every month. Love my “Culligan Man.”
Chalky Scale? Sulfur Smell? Salty Taste?
Find Out What’s Really
In Your Central Texas Well Water!
• Fast on-site results, no mailing
• We test hardness, dissolved solids, iron and pH
• Flexible sample pickup options
Frequently Asked Well Water Treatment Questions
We Have Answers
Does anyone in Texas have to test a private well?
No. The Texas Groundwater Protection Committee says plainly that private wells are largely unregulated and that no federal or state requirement exists for monitoring their drinking water quality. There is no right-to-know report, no required treatment, and no test at construction. A licensed driller files a construction report with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation within 30 days of finishing the well, covering depth, casing and location, and that is the end of the state’s involvement.
My groundwater district made me register my well. Doesn’t that mean it was checked?
No, and the two get confused often. Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District requires every well to be registered including exempt domestic wells, and Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District requires exempt wells to be registered as well. Registration records that the well exists and roughly how much it produces. Neither district requires a water quality test from the owner, and neither one tests your water for you.
How hard is Hill Country well water?
Very hard. The Texas Water Development Board’s 1983 study of Hill Country groundwater put Trinity Group hardness at 250 to 500 mg/L as calcium carbonate, about 15 to 29 grains per gallon, and noted that many samples ran above that. Those are mixed well types rather than a homes-only survey, so the number describes the aquifer rather than your address. For comparison, treated San Marcos city water is reported around 269 ppm, roughly 16 grains. Hard water is the baseline here, not the exception.
Why is my neighbor’s water so different from mine?
Depth. The Trinity is three aquifers stacked on top of each other and they do not carry the same water. State groundwater modeling puts the Middle Trinity’s median dissolved solids near 410 mg/L and the Lower Trinity’s near 760, and nitrate falls off as wells get deeper. A well finished in the Cow Creek and a well finished below it can sit on the same road and need different equipment.
Is there radium or uranium in our groundwater?
Not in the aquifers under this service area. The Texas Groundwater Protection Committee’s list of aquifers with elevated gross alpha names the Gulf Coast, Ogallala, Edwards-Trinity (Plateau), Hickory, Dockum and Seymour. The Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone), the Hill Country Trinity and the Carrizo-Wilcox are on none of them. The confusion comes from the name Edwards-Trinity (Plateau), which is a separate aquifer more than a hundred miles west.
Why does my well water smell like rotten eggs?
Hydrogen sulfide gas. Some of it occurs naturally in groundwater, and a lot of it is produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria living in the well, the plumbing or the water heater, which work faster in warm water. Turning a water heater thermostat down to save energy can make the smell worse. Sulfate is the raw material, and sulfate is well documented in the Trinity here. No agency publishes a prevalence figure for Texas, so we won’t quote one. Sulfur filtration removes it, and the right method depends on the concentration.
My water tastes salty. What causes that?
Dissolved solids, usually with a sodium-chloride character, and it is a signature of the deeper Trinity. The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District describes the Lower Trinity as producing water with high dissolved solids and sulfate, and state modeling flags slightly to moderately saline water in the downdip eastern parts of these aquifers in Blanco, Comal, Hays and Travis counties. A softener will not fix a salty taste. Reverse osmosis at the drinking tap is what handles it.
Do I need a softener, a filter, or both?
Most well homes out here end up with both, because hardness and the sulfur or sediment problems are separate issues with separate solutions. Whole home filtration paired with softening is the common answer for a Hill Country well, and a drinking water system gets added when dissolved solids are high.
Should I worry about bacteria in a well over the Edwards?
It is worth testing for. The Edwards is a karst aquifer, which means water moves through it fast along fractures and conduits instead of filtering slowly through sand. The Texas Water Development Board notes that rapid recharge through the karst outcrop makes the aquifer vulnerable to contamination, with runoff from developed areas a particular concern. Fast recharge is exactly the condition that lets surface bacteria reach a well. Nobody screens for it on your behalf.
What about nitrate?
Worth a test, and the local picture is better than you might expect. The Wimberley Valley Watershed Association visited more than 60 private wells in western Hays and northern Comal counties in 2021 and found nitrate detectable in the samples but below the federal limit in all of them. That is one season and a small sample, so it is reassuring rather than conclusive. State modeling also shows nitrate falling off as wells get deeper, so a shallow well deserves more attention than a deep one.
Will my water taste salty after a softener is installed?
No. A properly functioning water softener will never make your water taste salty. The small amount of sodium added is far too little to create a salty taste. If your water already tastes salty before treatment, that is dissolved solids and it needs a different system.
How does a water softener work?
Through ion exchange. As it removes the calcium and magnesium that make water hard, it replaces those ions one for one with sodium. The amount added is proportional to how hard your water is, and in most cases it isn’t a significant contributor to the sodium in your diet.
Will a softener reverse damage already done to my appliances?
Yes. Once a softener is installed it begins removing the scale that hard water built up. It takes a long time to clear, but it will clear.
Are chemicals added to my water to soften it?
Other than salt or potassium chloride, no. A softener reduces the cleaning supplies and detergents going down your drain, which makes it a net positive environmentally.
How often do I need to add salt?
Modern softeners recharge based on how much water you use and how hard it is. Most of our customers add salt once or twice a year. Very hard water means the system works harder, which is one more reason to know your number.
Is my well water safe to drink without treatment?
Hardness, sulfur and dissolved solids are aesthetic and nuisance problems at the levels we usually find out here. Safety questions like bacteria, nitrate and arsenic are separate tests and worth running on any private well, because nothing in Texas law has ever required anyone to run them. Start with a water test and we’ll tell you honestly which category your results fall into.
How long does installation take?
Most residential systems install in a few hours in a single visit. We deliver the equipment, install it, and set it up, so there’s nothing for you to unbox or assemble.
We’re building out in the county. When should treatment be designed in?
As soon as the well is drilled. Roughing in space and plumbing for treatment during construction costs far less than retrofitting it into a finished home, and out here you will almost certainly need something.
Where should I get started?
Every recommendation we make starts with knowing what is in your water. The test is free, it happens at your house, and it takes about half an hour. You’ll get your numbers explained in plain language and an honest answer about whether you need treatment at all.
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