Public Water Supplies

Nitrate Challenges

Collaborating organizations Aubudon Nebraska

National Groundwater Awareness Week is March 6–12, making it the perfect time to talk about groundwater in Nebraska! What exactly is groundwater? It is the water below the earth’s surface that fills the interconnected voids and cracks in and around soil particles, sand, gravel and rock. Groundwater is the most abundant supply of freshwater in the world and is the water source that private drinking water, irrigation, livestock and many public water supply wells draw from.

Photo credit: Jan Hygnstrom

Water is life! In Nebraska, approximately 85 percent of people receive their drinking water from groundwater resources. This includes individual homeowners living in suburban and rural areas, as well as the majority of towns and cities across the state. Because of Nebraska’s relative wealth of groundwater resources, we often tend to overlook the vital role water plays in the everyday lives of Nebraskans and our state as a whole.

Nebraska is no stranger to dry spells, especially during the summer months. Unfortunately, we have been experiencing longer year-round dry spells in recent years that are becoming more severe to deal with. While using water more efficiently is always a good habit to adopt, it becomes more critical during times of drought, even if restrictions are not mandatory yet.

PFAS are forever chemicals. Old landfills, industrial sites, firefighting foam, and wastewater treatment discharge are just some of the ways PFAS can contaminate the environment. It then ends up in our groundwater and surface water resources and soils which impacts the water we drink, and the fish and grown food that we eat. It is important to understand how PFAS chemicals move through the environment in order to address the problem of PFAS pollution. Image credit: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency 

Image credit: Nebraska 811 Spring is here and that often means its time start outdoor projects. Whether you are spading in new trees, putting in a koi pond or other excavated landscape features, drilling a new well, or installing a new onsite wastewater system, you want to make sure a ‘Locate Request’ has been submitted to Nebraska811 before digging. Nebraska811 is the statewide one-call notification center, set up by Nebraska state law. It is the link between people who want to excavate and the underground facility owners/operators.