An inventory of potential contaminant sources reveals what materials could end up in the community's drinking water. Considering this information, a community can institute preventive measures that will cost far less than remediation. Since so many of us drink ground water, protecting the water from contamination is important. There are over 1300 public water supply systems in Nebraska that pump ground water for drinking water. There are over 81,000 registered ground water wells in Nebraska.
Ground water is a very valuable resource in Nebraska.
Protecting this resource is a high priority so Nebraskans can have clean water to drink, irrigate crops, water lawns and use for industrial production. Congress directed each state to enact a program to prevent the contamination of ground water used by public water supply wells. The United States Environmental Protection Agency received Nebraska's proposed program in 1989 and approved the program in June, 1991. By definition, a public water supply system regularly serves 25 or more people, or has 15 or more service connections. In Nebraska public water supply systems are broken into the following groups.