Is Our Water OK?

What the federal record says about Dodge City's water — the nitrate story, the plants' own systems, and what a clean record does and doesn't mean.

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Is Our Water OK?

What the federal record says about Dodge City's water — the nitrate story, the plants' own systems, and what a clean record does and doesn't mean.

Dodge City drinks the Ogallala aquifer through about 29 wells, and in March 2026 the city took two of them offline because nitrate readings ran above the state limit. Since then the water has stayed legal by blending. That is a real thing to know about, and it is hard to find out anything solid about it.

This page reads the federal compliance record for the city's water system straight from EPA and shows what it actually says, along with the plants and neighbouring systems on the same aquifer.

On the record

Dodge City's water system has drinking-water violations on its record in the last three years.

Most drinking-water violations are about monitoring and reporting rather than a limit being exceeded. What kind these were is below.

The city runs it. About 27,000 people, all of it from wells.

27,104

People served

as reported to the state

Quarters with a violation

out of the last 13

Rules violated

distinct rules, last three years

2 June 2022

Last state inspection

the sanitary survey

The sanitary survey is the state’s on-site inspection of the plant, wells, storage and distribution. Community systems are normally surveyed every three years, some ground-water systems every five.

What the violations were

Kind of violation: Maximum Contaminant Level Violation
Rule involved: Nitrate

A monitoring or reporting violation means a required test or report was late or missing — the water may have been fine, but nobody could show it was.
A health-based violation means a limit on a contaminant was actually exceeded. Those are the ones to read carefully.
A public-notice violation means the system did not tell its customers about a problem the way the rules require.

DODGE CITY, CITY OF — Water source: ground water. Read from EPA now.

EPA’s full record for this system

What this record does not cover

This is a regulator's ledger, not a reading of your tap. States report to EPA quarterly and EPA refreshes weekly, so it lags — often by months. It carries nothing about how the water tastes or looks, nothing about pressure, nothing about a boil-water notice issued this week, and nothing about the sewer. A clean record here means no rule violation was reported. It is not a promise about this morning's glass of water. If something is wrong with your water today, call the city on (620) 225-8170.

Other water systems nearby

Not everyone in the area is on the same system. If your bill comes from one of these, this is its record:

System	People served	Last three years
National Beef, Dodge City plantIts own wells and its own record — the water thousands of people drink on shift.	2,955	Violations in 12 of the last 13 quarters
Cargill Meat Solutions, Dodge CityAlso its own system, also on the same aquifer.	2,600	No violations on record
City of FordFifteen miles east, 204 people. Included because nitrate in this part of Kansas is a regional problem, not a Dodge City one.	204	Health-based violation on record

How this record works

Your state health department, not EPA, does the day-to-day oversight; it reports violations to EPA each quarter. A problem from last month may not appear here for some time.
A violation is a breach of a federal rule. Most are about missing or late testing and reporting; the health-based ones, where a limit was actually exceeded, are called out separately above.
The sanitary survey is the state’s on-site inspection of the plant, wells, storage and distribution. Community systems are normally surveyed every three years, some ground-water systems every five.

If something is wrong with your water today

City of Dodge City — Water Division

Weekdays. After hours, the utilities line is (620) 255-9669 and extra charges may apply.

Phone: 620-225-8170
Website: www.dodgecity.org/111/Utilities

About the water here

Why nitrate, and who it actually matters to

Nitrate gets into groundwater from fertiliser and from livestock — which is to say, from the two things southwest Kansas does at scale. The federal limit is 10 milligrams per litre, and it is set where it is for one specific reason: above it, nitrate can interfere with an infant's blood carrying oxygen. That means the people it matters to are babies under six months old, and anyone mixing formula. Boiling does not help — it concentrates nitrate rather than removing it. If you are mixing formula and there is an advisory in force, the answer is bottled water, not boiled water. For everyone else in the household, nitrate at these levels is not the same kind of concern. The city has kept supply legal by blending water from different wells. That is a normal, permitted way to run a system, and it is also why the two shut-off wells did not become a violation.

Source: US EPA, National Primary Drinking Water Regulations — nitrate MCL 10 mg/L, checked 25 July 2026 (4 days ago).

What the record shows right now, and what it doesn't

EPA's record lists a nitrate violation against the Dodge City system inside the three-year window, and no current violation. Those are two different statements and both are on the page above. One detail worth reading carefully: EPA classes it as a Maximum Contaminant Level violation. Most drinking-water violations across the country are about missed monitoring or late paperwork; this one is not. It means a limit was exceeded in the quarters it covers. What the ledger cannot tell you is the March 2026 well shutdowns, because taking a well offline to stay under a limit is the opposite of a violation — it is the system working. You will not find that story in a compliance database. It reached residents through a commission meeting and a couple of news reports, which is exactly the gap this page exists to narrow.

Source: EPA ECHO Safe Drinking Water record, read live on this page, checked 25 July 2026 (4 days ago).

The plants are separate water systems

National Beef and Cargill each run their own wells and are regulated as their own public water systems, with about 2,955 and 2,600 people served. If you work a shift there, the water you drink at work is on a different record from the water at your house — which is why both are listed above rather than folded into the city's number.

Official pages

EPA ECHO — Dodge City's detailed facility reportThe full federal record this page reads from.
KDHE Drinking Water WatchKansas runs the drinking-water programme. Its database carries the actual sample results, system by system.
City of Dodge City — UtilitiesWho to call, and how to pay.
City of Dodge City — Water Supply Master PlanThe city's own long-term water strategy presentation.

Data: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS). A work of the U.S. Government.