Brown County Water Quality

Brown County, Kansas has a drinking-water quality grade of F with a score of 20.4/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 9 health-based drinking water violations over the past 5 years. Watershed health, monitoring records, and live streamflow are reported separately on this page.

Brown County has 9 health-based drinking water violations recorded by the EPA over the past 5 years. Health-based violations indicate instances where contaminant levels exceeded EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs). Violations may have been resolved — check with your local water utility for current status.

EPA's Water Quality Portal records 4,908 measurements from 16 monitoring sites in Brown County over the past five years. The most frequently measured characteristic groups are Organics, Other, Organics, Pesticide, Inorganics, Minor, Metals. Each measurement is a single sample analyzed for one characteristic (E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, etc.). High monitoring density means more scientific evidence behind any reported signal — it does not by itself indicate water quality.

Brown County's SDWIS water quality score of 20.4/100 is lower than the Kansas state average of 42.6. The average water quality grade across Kansas is D, based on data from 105 counties with available SDWIS data.

Based on EPA SDWIS data, Brown County has a water quality grade of F (20.4/100). This indicates below-average compliance with significant violations. Residents may want to consider home water filtration or independent testing. The grade speaks to the public water system, not the watershed — for watershed-level concerns, see the Watershed Health zone. For the most up-to-date information, contact your local water utility or review your Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).

Brown County has 9 health-based drinking water violations on record from the EPA SDWIS database. A higher violation count can result from aging infrastructure, underfunded water utilities, agricultural runoff contamination, or industrial pollution. Counties with more water systems may also see more violations simply due to scale. Residents concerned about water quality should consider independent water testing and home filtration systems.

Brown County ranks #68 out of 105 counties in Kansas by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 20.4/100, it falls in the middle third of counties statewide. The ranking reflects EPA SDWIS compliance only — not watershed impairment, monitoring density, or streamflow, which are tracked separately on this page.