University Park Water Shares ATreatment Plant—Not a City Water System

University Park shares a supplier with Highland Park

University Park purchases treated surface water from the Dallas County Park Cities Municipal Utility District.

The MUD’s Regal Row treatment plant supplies both University Park and Highland Park. The raw water originates from the Grapevine Reservoir system through the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.

The shared treatment process includes:

• Raw-water screening
• Lime and ferric sulfate treatment
• Flocculation and clarification
• Granular activated carbon, sand and support-media filters
• Ultrafiber membrane filtration
• Chlorine plus ammonia for final disinfection
• Approximately 10 million gallons of underground finished-water storage

Finished water is then pumped into University Park’s own system, including the Germany Park station.

This is why the two Park Cities pages should acknowledge their similarity instead of inventing different source chemistry.

University Park’s distribution system creates the local difference

After the MUD treatment plant, University Park assumes responsibility for its own network.

The city reports that it:

• Reads more than 9,000 residential and commercial meters
• Maintains two 2-million-gallon elevated storage tanks
• Operates a water network located primarily beneath alleys and some street rights-of-way
• Repairs local main and service failures
• Supports continuing reconstruction of the distribution system

University Park also maintains approximately 88 miles of water mains. Its Mile-per-Year capital program, started in 1989, replaces roughly one mile of water and sewer infrastructure annually.

That history does not mean University Park water is routinely contaminated by old pipes. It means the condition after treatment is influenced by a separate local distribution system that Highland Park does not operate.

The shared supplier makes the source story similar. The separate storage, mains, sample locations and private plumbing make the delivered-water story local.

What the 2025 University Park report shows

University Park’s current report, published in June 2026 using 2025 data, states that the city met or exceeded applicable state and federal drinking-water requirements and holds TCEQ’s Superior Public Water System designation.

The report listed:

• Disinfectant residual: average approximately 2.55 ppm, with results from 0.6–3.6 ppm
• HAA5: highest locational running annual averages of approximately 9–11 ppb across four University Park sampling points
• TTHM: highest locational running annual averages of approximately 3–4 ppb
• Nitrate: approximately 1.27 ppm
• Lead: 90th-percentile result of approximately 1.39 ppb, with one sampled site above the 15 ppb action level; the systemwide 90th percentile remained below the action level

The report labels the residual table as chlorine, while the Park Cities treatment description explains that chlorine and ammonia are used together for final disinfection. The practical residential target is therefore the combined chloramine residual delivered through the system.

The report also records a Consumer Confidence Report adequacy or delivery violation for part of 2025–2026. That is a reporting-compliance matter, not evidence that a contaminant exceeded its drinking-water limit.

EWG’s University Park profile asks a stricter question

EWG reports:

• HAA5: 7.36 ppb compared with EWG’s 0.1 ppb guideline and the federal 60 ppb group limit
• HAA9: 12.9 ppb compared with EWG’s 0.06 ppb guideline; there is no federal limit for the nine-compound group
• Nitrate: 0.976 ppm compared with EWG’s 0.14 ppm guideline and the federal 10 ppm limit
• PFHxS: 2.9 ppt compared with EWG’s 0.001 ppt guideline
• PFOS: 1.43 ppt compared with EWG’s 0.3 ppt guideline

The EWG values come from multiple reporting windows. They are not the same as the city’s 2025 point-in-time or annual regulatory tables.

The legal and EWG comparisons can both be true: University Park can satisfy enforceable requirements while EWG recommends far lower health-only benchmarks.

For a homeowner, that difference creates a rational treatment choice. It does not justify saying the public supply is illegal or unfit for consumption.

What Water Fixers DFW has encountered in University Park

Water Fixers DFW has completed residential water-treatment work in University Park.

Because the source plant already uses lime treatment, GAC and membranes, the page should not pretend the water begins as a crude untreated supply. The opportunity is final refinement:

• Remove remaining hardness according to the homeowner’s preference
• Reduce the distribution chloramine before showers and fixtures
• Add a selective kitchen barrier for drinking-water constituents
• Size equipment around the actual plumbing and flow demand

University Park’s alley-based utility network and continuing infrastructure replacement also make installation planning distinctly local. Exterior placement, service-line routing, drain access and the relationship between public and private piping can differ from a conventional front-entry suburban layout.

That does not mean every home has the same installation constraint. It means the page can discuss real city infrastructure rather than relying on generic prestige language.

A complete University Park treatment strategy

1. Scale Protection via Water Fixers Clarion Elite™

Clarion Elite addresses residual calcium and magnesium hardness.

University Park’s current report does not publish the same detailed hardness table as Highland Park, even though both share the Park Cities treatment plant. The shared source suggests a relatively softened municipal baseline, but an exact University Park hardness claim should come from current local or property data.

Clarion Elite is therefore selected for homeowners who want consistently softened water rather than because the page assumes a high universal hardness number.

2. Whole-Home Filtration via Water Fixers Carbonyx Elite™

Carbonyx Elite is the whole-home catalytic carbon stage for chloramine, taste, odor and appropriate organic-compound or disinfection-byproduct goals.

The municipal plant already uses GAC, but final chlorine and ammonia are added for distribution. Carbonyx Elite treats that delivered residual at the property.

University Park’s HAA5 and HAA9 profile also makes properly designed whole-home carbon relevant for homeowners seeking an additional barrier for applicable treatment byproducts.

3. Kitchen Purifier via Water Fixers ClaRO™

ClaRO provides point-of-use reverse osmosis for drinking and cooking water.

This is the more selective stage for nitrate and PFAS goals, subject to membrane certification, feedwater pressure, pretreatment and maintenance.

A whole-home carbon bed and kitchen RO are not redundant. One addresses service-flow water throughout the property; the other provides membrane treatment where water is directly consumed.