Faucets in Edgewood, Texas, have been running brown for weeks, and residents say they've had enough. Neighbors in this small Van Zandt County community have shared photos of murky water pooling in toilet bowls and bathtubs, and one resident found a pool pump caked in sludge, even as city officials maintain the water remains safe to drink and bathe in.
Jacob Rabe told NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth he doesn't use the water for anything because it smells like murky lake water, and he reported that his bathtub faucet ran darker on Tuesday afternoon. Jennifer McVea said she does not drink, cook with, or bathe in the water, and she's resorted to using bottled water just to fill her dogs' bowls. Gary Nelson put it bluntly, saying toilets in the community have become a brown mess.
The city acknowledged the brown-water problem in a Facebook post last month, and it has since attributed the discoloration to manganese oxidizing with chlorine during water treatment. According to the Water Quality Association, that reaction is well documented: when raw surface water carrying dissolved manganese meets chlorine oxidizers during treatment, the soluble mineral transforms into insoluble dark particles that discolor tap water and can form sludge if it isn't fully filtered or flushed from the system.
Why Manganese Turns Water Brown but Isn't Automatically a Health Violation
The federal government doesn't treat manganese discoloration as an emergency on its own. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets a National Secondary Drinking Water Standard of 0.05 milligrams per liter for manganese, a non-enforceable federal guideline above which water can turn brown, stain plumbing fixtures, and develop a bitter metallic taste. That threshold exists because manganese is treated primarily as an aesthetic and cosmetic concern rather than an acute safety hazard.
Still, the mineral isn't harmless at every level. The Water Quality Association notes the EPA maintains a separate, non-enforceable lifetime Health Advisory of 0.3 milligrams per liter for chronic manganese exposure, warning that prolonged high doses can cause adverse neurological effects. It remains unclear what specific manganese concentration Texas regulators measured in Edgewood's system, as exact lab readings have not been made public.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found elevated manganese levels during its investigation, according to a city statement. As the state's primacy agency under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the TCEQ oversees public water system compliance and issues binding chemical treatment protocols to Texas utilities during water quality investigations of this kind.
City's Fix Involves Zinc Phosphate and Daily Line Flushing
Per the city's statement, the TCEQ advised Edgewood to introduce zinc phosphate while adjusting other chemicals to balance pH levels. Research on municipal water treatment shows zinc phosphate is commonly used as a corrosion inhibitor, building a protective passivation film on pipe walls, though its effectiveness in preventing metal release depends on maintaining precise pH balance. How long that chemical adjustment takes to fully coat the city's distribution lines is not yet known.
Edgewood water plant operators are monitoring and flushing the distribution lines daily in an effort to clear precipitated mineral sludge from the pipe network. City officials say water clarity is expected to keep improving and anticipate the brown-water issue will be resolved this week. The city maintains its water is safe, citing state-mandated testing that it says shows the water is safe to bathe in and consume.
Drought and an Algae-Prone Lake Add Pressure
Edgewood draws its surface drinking water supply from Lake Tawakoni in Van Zandt County, according to the city's 2023 Consumer Confidence Report. Environmental monitoring data from LakeQuality rates the reservoir with a “D” grade for water quality, citing high nutrient and phosphorus levels, heavy algae presence, and low water clarity averaging about 1.5 feet of visibility.
Those raw-water challenges came under added strain this year. Local reporting indicated that in July, Edgewood declared a Stage 3 severe water shortage and implemented mandatory conservation measures following prolonged summer drought conditions across East Texas. Severe drought can reduce reservoir volumes and concentrate the dissolved minerals already present in the lake.
The city's water system has faced distribution troubles before. Edgewood has previously been placed under a TCEQ-mandated boil water notice after distribution line repairs caused system pressure to drop below the required 20 PSI threshold, an event that can dislodge accumulated pipe scale and sediment throughout the network. It remains an open question whether Edgewood's aging distribution infrastructure will need longer-term capital upgrades beyond routine flushing to prevent future discoloration.
For now, many residents in this town of roughly 1,530 people, located about 60 miles east of Dallas, say they're not taking chances. McVea said residents should have clean drinking water in 2026, a sentiment echoed by neighbors who continue to fear using the water for drinking, cleaning, or bathing while the city works to restore clarity to the system.
