Texas Water Company wouldn’t go into details about clearing up the water. A TCEQ email did.
SPRING BRANCH, Texas — Trevor Langley and his business partner have a lawn care business in Spring Branch. Langley would like to shower when he gets home, but right now he refuses to do so.
He says his water has been brown for more than a month.
“I’ve been showering using bottled water because the water is so filthy it’s disgusting. I don’t want to damage my skin,” Langley said.
Langley said the issue started in late July and he eventually reported it to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
He’s not alone. TCEQ has received 17 complaints relating to poor water quality from the area water company since August 12, 2025. That water company is branded as “Texas Water Company.” TCEQ records currently refer to it as ” CLWSC Canyon Lake Shores.”
TCEQ started an investigation on August 14.
When multiple Spring Branch residents started contacting KENS 5 about the issue, we started asking questions too. KENS 5 asked Texas Water Company to provide the latest water quality tests for that area and tell us when the issue could be resolved.
Instead, they sent a statement, which said in part, “We remain committed to ongoing improvements until the issue is fully resolved, which we expect to happen very soon.”
Fortunately, TCEQ sent the homeowners who filed complaints more detailed information. KENS 5 also reached out to TCEQ.
The TCEQ told KENS 5 the water does currently meet state standards for drinking water. The TCEQ also believed the issue was caused by manganese in the water and said, “it is not considered to be a threat to human health.”
While the EPA sets legal limits on over 90 contaminants in drinking water, there are another 15 “secondary contaminants” that “are not considered to present a risk to human health.”
There are suggested guidelines for secondary contaminants to assist public water systems in managing their drinking water for aesthetic considerations, such as taste, color and odor. Water companies are not required to follow those guidelines.
Manganese is considered a “secondary contaminant.”
The email suggested that Texas Water Company had either not seen this contaminant before, or was not equipped to handle it:
“It was further advised that manganese had not been a constituent for which the Canyon Lake Shores surface water treatment plant has had to address historically, thus the plant was not adequately equipped to immediately address the issue,” the email said.
It said the TWC initially tried applying “sodium hypochlorite (bleach) to alter the chemical state of the manganese, oxidizing it and making it more available to be filtered.” Unfortunately, this was not as successful as they needed it to be.
The email also said the water company started trying another option this week:
“TWC advised on 9/9/2025 that, in conjunction with the TCEQ TOP team, a new treatment process was implemented, which incorporated the application of potassium permanganate, and that this appears to be working much more effectively at removing the manganese. The new treatment technique was initiated on 9/8/25 in the afternoon,” the email said.
The TCEQ email also said Texas Water Company was putting together a plan to better flush local water lines:
“TWC provided another update Thursday morning advising that although some additional cursory flushing is occurring in the immediate area around the surface water plant for fine tuning the treatment process, major flushing operations to transfer the water throughout the distribution system would need to be implemented. They advised that a strategy for system wide flushing was being developed, and they were hopeful that plan would be disseminated to the water system customers and the general public,” the email said.
Langley said he hadn’t seen any flushing yet. He’s just hoping to be able to shower with clear water once again.
“I just want it to be clean,” Langley said.