Groundwater

Fall and winter gatherings are upon us and that often means a bustling house full of family, friends and preparation of tasty recipes in the kitchen. All of these things should make for joyful times, but they can potentially have a stressful impact on your private water well and onsite wastewater systems. This time of year also has a greater impact on municipal systems as well, so following the best daily practices below is a good idea for municipal customers, too. 

It is hard to believe that it is already fall! This means it is time for a fall inspection of your well, water treatment, and onsite septic systems and performing necessary maintenance when necessary. If you haven’t completed your annual water quality testing yet, order a test kit to collect your water samples for nitrate, total coliform, and any other contaminants of concern in your area. Taking the time to follow the Well & Septic Owner’s Checklist helps protect the health of your family and our groundwater resources.

Well & Septic Owner’s Checklist

💧Inspect your wellhead and area around it in the spring and fall. Perform maintenance as necessary: 

The 2026 Nebraska Groundwater-Level Report highlights declines across 62% of wells over the last year due to the ongoing drought. Pockets of improving conditions from better rainfall also appear. UNL CSD, led by Aaron Young, compiles annual groundwater-level data from 5,000 wells into detailed maps. Read more to find out your local conditions.

Often, we do not think of snow and ice as potential stormwater runoff, but they definitely are. With increasing warm spells throughout the winter causing multiple freeze-thaw cycles where the snow and ice begin to melt and shrink, winter precipitation acts as rain does, picking up and transporting contaminants from sidewalks, driveways, rooftops, roads, parking lots and agricultural fields. Ice melt salt, pet/animal waste, fertilizers, vehicle exhaust/oils/ fluids and litter are some of the common contaminants picked up as ice and snow melt away.

Often, we do not think of snow and ice as potential stormwater runoff, but they definitely are. With increasing warm spells throughout the winter causing multiple freeze-thaw cycles where the snow and ice begin to melt and shrink, winter precipitation acts as rain does, picking up and transporting contaminants from sidewalks, driveways, rooftops, roads, parking lots, and agricultural fields. Ice melt salt, pet/animal waste, fertilizers, vehicle exhaust/oils/fluids, and litter are some of the common contaminants picked up as ice and snow melt away.

Winter is on its way which means it is time to assess and insulate the pipes in your home’s crawl spaces and attic. Both plastic and copper pipes can freeze, and frozen water pipes affect folks who live in both cold and warmer climates. By conducting routine preventative maintenance, one can greatly reduce the risk of potentially expensive damage that frozen water pipes can cause.

Those residences that are not served by a public water or rural water system need a source of water for both consumption and daily needs. A private well most often fulfills these needs. While the cost of drilling a well is a lesser expense in the overall purchase or building of a home, it is a necessary expense to provide the residence with a useable water supply and it adds value to the property.

Reviewing Your Water Needs

With new regulations being implemented in Nebraska because of falling groundwater levels, you may be wondering how they will impact the value of agricultural lands in those regions. Ag economists from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute analyzed what has happened historically. Their findings: Land values were unaffected by groundwater allocations. Neither allocations or well moratoria had any significant effect on the value of land that had already been developed for irrigation. Well moratoria reduced the value of dryland acres by 9%.

The annual Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Report from the Conservation and Survey Division in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s School of Natural Resources shows that groundwater levels in the eastern half of the state continue to decline following several years of persistent drought.

National Groundwater Awareness Week is March 9–15, 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 — all of this is what we call an aquifer. 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.