Where does your drinking water come from?
Everyone turns on the faucet in their home and water comes out. But where was it before it got to your house? Continue below to find out!
OMAHA METRO AREA
If you live in the Omaha Metropolitan Area, drinking water is likely delivered to your house through miles of pipes. All of these pipes get water from a water treatment plant. The Omaha Metropolitan Utilities District (MUD) operates three treatment plants and the City of Papillion operates another. MUD serves water to Omaha, Bellevue, La Vista, Bennington, Ralston, Boys Town and Carter Lake as well as providing water to Waterloo.
These treatment plants start with water from the Missouri River or from groundwater along the Platte River (see map). Since all of MUD's pipes are interconnected, you don't really know if you are drinking water that came from groundwater or the Missouri River!
MUD refers to this interconnection as the "Triangle of Reliability"! Water from all three sources is cleaned the same way at all three treatment plants and tested hundreds of times to ensure that water in downtown Omaha is the EXACT same as West Omaha!
This Triangle also allows MUD to get more water from one source or another to accommodate maintenance or be more resilient during a drought!
SMALLER CITIES IN DOUGLAS AND SARPY COUNTIES
If you live in smaller communities, like Gretna, Valley, Springfield or certain subdivisions, you also likely receive drinking water from pipes; but in this case, your water does NOT go through a treatment plant. Groundwater that is pumped in these smaller cities and towns is tested and as long as it meets specific water quality criteria, then it is sent directly to people's homes and businesses.
DRINKING WATER AND GROUNDWATER PROTECTION
All wells that withdraw groundwater to supply drinking water for over 25 people are considered public supply wells. Protecting the water quality of these wells is vital, considering many of the small communities do not have drinking water treatment.
The areas outlined in blue on the map are considered Wellhead Protection Areas. Shown are all the various Wellhead Protection Areas in Douglas and Sarpy Counties.
It is extremely important that anyone in these areas prevent chemical spills or other pollution. It is also important that we consistently and routinely monitor and test the groundwater quality in these areas. Work to monitor and protect groundwater is accomplished by all citizens, each community, Nebraska's NRDs, and the Nebraska Dept. of Environment and Energy!
PRIVATE DOMESTIC WELLS
Many homes and acreages outside of the city get their drinking water from private domestic wells. Wells shown in the map all get water from an underground aquifer and are only the registered domestic wells installed since approx. 1993. Before then, wells that pumped less than 50 gallons per minute did not have to be registered.
The map shows around 1,625 individual wells in Douglas and Sarpy Counties. This is probably only about 38% of the actual number of domestic wells (~4,265) in the 2 counties. Together, all of these wells likely serve a population between 12,500 and 13,500.
No government agency or regulation requires that individual domestic wells be sampled and tested as safe drinking water. It is up to each homeowner to sample and test their drinking water. It is strongly recommended that this testing be done on an annual basis!
