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State profile · EPA SDWIS + UCMR5

Nebraska Drinking Water Quality

1,309 systems serve 1,798,088. Health-based share of the violation record is 65%; SDWIS systems with ≥1 violation: 88.9%.

1,309
SDWIS water systems
49,989
Total violations
88.9%
SDWIS systems w/ a violation
13.2%
UCMR5 PFAS rate (53 tested)

The verdict

65% of 49,989 recorded violations are health-based across 1,309 systems. According to EPA SDWIS population served, Nebraska ranks #38 of 66 states and territories by people served through public water systems.

#38 of 66
Population · states corpus
49,989
Total EPA violations on record
65%
Health-based (MCL / treatment)
88.9%
SDWIS systems with ≥1 violation

SDWIS violation % and UCMR5 PFAS % use different denominators (full inventory vs tested subset). Population ordinal uses SDWIS population served.

Nebraska standing, low SDWIS violation-rate third

Nebraska is in the lower third of jurisdictions by violation rate (88.9%; lower-third rate (≤ 92.5%)). That is a relative placement among peers, not a claim that most systems are clean - 1,164 of 1,309 still carry ≥1 record. Population served is mid-pack at 1,798,088 (mid served population (≤ 5,131,439)). Health-based share is 65% - most of this ledger is MCL or treatment-technique exceedance, not paperwork. UCMR5 PFAS detection is 13.2% on the tested subset (lower-third UCMR5 detection (≤ 17.5%)) - a different denominator from the SDWIS violation rate. Systems listed below are ranked by population served or violation count; pair rate with inventory size before reading exposure scale.

Nationwide similar states

Nearest by SDWIS violation rate

California (89.2%) Virginia (90%) New Hampshire (90.2%) Texas (90.2%)

Nearest by population served

Idaho (1,743,912 served) West Virginia (1,597,057 served) New Mexico (2,027,497 served) Hawaii (1,520,931 served)

Health-based share of this violation record

EPA SDWIS classifications for Nebraska's 49,989 recorded violations.

0%100%65.4%
32,716 health-based violations (65.4%) and 17,273 monitoring or reporting violations. Health-based violations are MCL or treatment-technique failures; neither total alone establishes a present household exposure risk.

Nebraska vs nearest violation-rate peers

Share of SDWIS-listed systems with at least one recorded violation; peers are nearest by absolute rate distance, not a fixed top-seven list.

% of systems

What this shows Nebraska's rate is 88.9% (1,164 of 1,309 systems; lower-third rate (≤ 92.5%)). This is a comparison of recorded SDWIS violations, not a measure of current water safety.

Source EPA SDWIS state aggregates As of 2026-05-15

Nebraska vs all jurisdictions by SDWIS system inventory

Where this state's public water system count sits among every state and territory on PlainWater

1,309 32nd of 66 higher than 34 of 66 jurisdictions

States and territories, banded by SDWIS-listed public water system count

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more jurisdictions. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source EPA SDWIS state aggregates · 2026-05-15

Largest Water Systems

Metropolitan Utilities District
Omaha, NE · 660,000 served
12 violations
Lincoln, City Of
Lincoln, NE · 296,000 served
8 violations
Grand Island, City Of
Grand Island, NE · 51,478 served
11 violations
Papillion, City Of
Papillion, NE · 35,000 served
26 violations
Kearney, City Of
Kearney, NE · 34,000 served
37 violations
Fremont, City Of
Fremont, NE · 27,230 served
15 violations
Norfolk, City Of
Norfolk, NE · 26,147 served
7 violations
North Platte, City Of
North Platte, NE · 25,000 served
62 violations
Hastings, City Of
Hastings, NE · 24,927 served
60 violations
Columbus, City Of
Columbus, NE · 24,028 served
43 violations
Scottsbluff, City Of
Scottsbluff, NE · 14,282 served
39 violations
South Sioux City, City Of
South Sioux City, NE · 14,043 served
4 violations
Beatrice, City Of
Beatrice, NE · 12,220 served
41 violations
Lexington, City Of
Lexington, NE · 10,230 served
60 violations
Gretna, City Of
Gretna, NE · 8,661 served
58 violations
Gering, City Of
Gering, NE · 8,500 served
130 violations
York, City Of
York, NE · 8,091 served
57 violations
Alliance, City Of
Alliance, NE · 8,070 served
106 violations
Blair, City Of
Blair, NE · 8,000 served
112 violations
Seward, City Of
Seward, NE · 7,700 served
75 violations

Most Violations

#1 Adams, Village Of Adams
523
#2 Edgar, City Of Edgar
445
#3 College View Park Columbus
368
#4 Benkelman, City Of Benkelman
330
#5 Humphrey, City Of Humphrey
279
#6 North Loup, Village Of North Loup
271
#7 Riverton, Village Of Riverton
256
#8 Rogers, Village Of Rogers
237
#9 Cottonwood Meadows York
236
#10 Unl-Eastern Nebr Resrch & Extension Cntr Ithaca
235
#11 Steele City, Village Of Steele City
233
#12 Tournesol Ent LLC Dba Ctry View Campgrnd Ogallala
227
#13 Belden, Village Of Belden
225
#14 Waterbury, Village Of Waterbury
217
#15 Prosser, Village Of Hastings
211

Counties in Nebraska

Douglas
53 systems · 672,690 served · 882 violations
Lancaster
89 systems · 322,833 served · 2,037 violations
Hall
40 systems · 61,265 served · 1,039 violations
Sarpy
39 systems · 58,403 served · 1,069 violations
Buffalo
43 systems · 43,401 served · 1,147 violations
Madison
25 systems · 34,386 served · 573 violations
Lincoln
50 systems · 32,730 served · 1,287 violations
Dodge
17 systems · 32,386 served · 493 violations
Scotts Bluff
29 systems · 31,247 served · 1,712 violations
Adams
16 systems · 29,551 served · 598 violations
Platte
32 systems · 28,978 served · 1,819 violations
Cass
42 systems · 27,182 served · 1,450 violations
Dakota
10 systems · 23,417 served · 243 violations
Dawson
37 systems · 21,525 served · 823 violations
Washington
22 systems · 18,240 served · 770 violations
Gage
25 systems · 17,901 served · 1,344 violations
Saunders
39 systems · 16,197 served · 1,669 violations
Saline
17 systems · 15,025 served · 397 violations
Otoe
12 systems · 14,499 served · 441 violations
York
25 systems · 12,695 served · 1,441 violations
Seward
20 systems · 12,669 served · 1,155 violations
Cherry
18 systems · 10,718 served · 797 violations
Box Butte
8 systems · 9,104 served · 243 violations
Keith
43 systems · 8,984 served · 1,121 violations
Red Willow
8 systems · 8,653 served · 518 violations
Colfax
11 systems · 8,624 served · 701 violations
Dawes
16 systems · 8,335 served · 917 violations
Cheyenne
9 systems · 8,051 served · 540 violations
Cuming
8 systems · 8,009 served · 460 violations
Richardson
11 systems · 7,804 served · 678 violations

Showing top 30 of 93 counties.

Browse all 1,309 Nebraska public water systems →

Context: Is your tap water safe? · methodology · all states

Data sourced from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 PFAS monitoring data. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainWater

Every figure on PlainWater is rendered directly from EPA SDWIS drinking-water data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on EPA SDWIS data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.