Sedgwick County, Kansas: drinking water report. Sedgwick County – Wichita – serves about 520,000 residents.
Sedgwick County – Wichita – serves about 520,000 residents. The City of Wichita draws from Cheney Reservoir and the Equus Beds Aquifer, a major groundwater system in south-central Kansas. The city has invested significantly in the Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) project, which diverts excess surface water from the Little Arkansas River into the Equus Beds to replenish the aquifer and push back a saltwater plume that has been encroaching from natural brine deposits.
Wichita's split supply – surface reservoir and groundwater – provides redundancy but also means the contaminant profile depends on which source is dominant at any given time. UCMR5 data shows low-level PFAS detections in the Wichita system. McConnell Air Force Base, located in the southeast part of the metro, is a confirmed PFAS source from AFFF use.
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's 2024 monitoring data, PFAS levels in the City of Wichita system were below proposed federal MCLs. The saltwater intrusion into the Equus Beds remains the longer-term supply concern, though the ASR project has shown measurable success in pushing the brine front back.
Wichita's dual supply system provides resilience, but the PFAS picture near McConnell AFB deserves attention if you live in the southeast metro.
Check your water for data specific to your area. For PFAS, activated carbon or reverse osmosis work at the household level. Our water filter guide covers options. Pull your detailed report, and visit our Kansas page for statewide data.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Sedgwick County, KS.
The EPA places Sedgwick County, KS in Zone 2 - a moderate-risk category, with a predicted average indoor radon level between 2 and 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.
55% of homes in Sedgwick County, KS were built before 1980, and 16% 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 Sedgwick County, KS averages 8.9 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
23 public water systems serving Sedgwick County, KS 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. 3 water systems serving Sedgwick County, KS carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule | 2 |
| Ground Water Rule | 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.