Douglas County, Nebraska: drinking water report. Douglas County is home to Omaha and about 584,000 residents.
Douglas County is home to Omaha and about 584,000 residents. Metropolitan Utilities District (MUD) draws from the Missouri River and a wellfield along the Platte River, treating water at two plants. The Missouri River at Omaha carries the accumulated agricultural and industrial inputs of its entire upstream watershed – one of the largest river systems in the country.
The Missouri River at Omaha carries atrazine from upstream agricultural states. According to the USGS's 2024 monitoring data, atrazine at the MUD intake peaked at 2.6 ppb during spring flush – below the MCL of 3 ppb but consistently present. MUD's treatment process includes granular activated carbon specifically to address seasonal atrazine and taste-and-odor compounds.
Offutt Air Force Base in neighboring Sarpy County has confirmed PFAS contamination that affects the regional groundwater. The Air Force's 2024 environmental investigation documented PFOS at 43 ppt in monitoring wells near the base's fire training areas. While MUD's Missouri River supply is not directly affected, the Platte River wellfield draws from a shared aquifer system. The EPA's UCMR5 data detected PFAS at low levels in the MUD system.
Omaha's water treatment is thorough, but the Missouri River's agricultural contaminant load and the regional PFAS contamination from Offutt AFB make household filtration a reasonable added measure.
Check your water for current data. A carbon block filter handles atrazine and disinfection byproducts effectively. For PFAS, reverse osmosis provides the strongest household option. Our water filter guide covers systems suited to treated river water. Pull your detailed report for seasonal patterns, and visit our Nebraska page for statewide context.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Douglas County, NE.
The EPA places Douglas County, NE in Zone 1 - the EPA's highest-risk category, where the predicted average indoor radon level is above 4 pCi/L. Zone maps predict an area's radon potential from geology and existing indoor readings; they say nothing about a specific house. Testing is the only way to know your own level.
56% of homes in Douglas County, NE were built before 1980, and 20% before 1950. Residential lead paint was banned in 1978, so housing age is the strongest available proxy for lead-paint exposure. This describes the county's housing stock, not any one home.
Modelled annual fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) in Douglas County, NE averages 6.2 µg/m³, within the EPA's annual standard of 9 µg/m³. These are CDC modelled county estimates rather than readings from a specific monitor.
How radon zones work · Air quality by county · Lead exposure guide
17 public water systems serving Douglas County, NE have EPA lead testing on record. The reported lead sample skews toward systems that already flagged a problem, so its exceedance rate is not directly comparable with other areas. 2 water systems serving Douglas County, NE carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Revised Total Coliform Rule | 2 |
| Nitrate-Nitrite | 1 |
| Coliform (pre-TCR) | 1 |
Source: EPA Lead and Copper Rule 90th-percentile tap sampling and EPA SDWIS Safe Drinking Water Act enforcement records, aggregated from the public water systems serving this county. Figures are counts of water systems, not a test of any individual home or tap.