Nitrate is widespread in Queen Anne's County wells.
1 widespread, 1 worth checking, 5 rare out of 7 health checks.
From 63 wells tested in Queen Anne's County since 2001; your own well needs its own test. How to read this
Rare: under 5%Worth checking: 5 to 15%Widespread: 15%+
Lab results: Water Quality Portal (USGS and EPA)
Who drinks from a well here
7 in 10 people 36,046 people
Nobody else tests these wells. Only you do.
People on wells: EPA researchers' 2020 estimate
How deep wells go here
Deep wells: fewer surface germs, more minerals from the rock.
Well depths: US Groundwater Well Database
Radon risk (a gas from rock)
Less likely, but the EPA still says test your air.
Radon zones: EPA map
Here's how Queen Anne's County compares with Maryland and the counties around it.
Each result puts Queen Anne's County next to the 5 counties that border it, on the chart's 0 to 50% scale.
This one is widespread in Queen Anne's County wells.
Nitrate17 of 45 wells over
* Likely overstated, so we don't rank it.
This one is worth checking in Queen Anne's County.
Arsenic4 of 36 wells over
These 5 are rare in Queen Anne's County.
Manganese0 of 45 wells over
Radon in water0 of 14 wells over
Too few tested to show: Kent.
Lead0 of 17 wells over
Too few tested to show: Kent.
Fluoride0 of 41 wells over
Uranium0 of 15 wells over
Too few tested to show: Kent, Kent, DE.
Coliform bacteria turned up in 2 of 2 tested Queen Anne's County wells, so test for it every year.
Coliform bacteria2 of 2 wells had it
E. coli2 of 2 wells had it
E. coli means human or animal waste is getting in, so if a test of your Queen Anne's County well finds it, boil drinking water until the well is fixed.
Iron reached staining levels in 11 of 45 tested wells, and it isn't a health risk.
Iron stains11 of 45 wells had it
Queen Anne's County has 63 tested wells, and the busiest decade for testing was the 2010s.
Only 1 of the 63 wells have a test from 2020 or later, so a fresh test of your own well tells you more than any of these.
Most Queen Anne's County wells in these records were tested for research or because someone suspected a problem, which can push the shares above what a typical home well would show (how we read the numbers).
One mail-in lab test covers the 3 things to check in Queen Anne's County.
- Bacteria
- Nitrate
- Arsenic
What Maryland offers well owners
- Free testingWe didn't find a free program for all of Maryland. Maryland's private well page
- Certified labsMaryland's list of certified labs
- Well recordsWe didn't find an online search.
- New wellsSince October 1, 2024, Md. Code, Real Property 10-713 requires a contract for sale of property with a private well to make well water quality testing a condition of sale, with both parties certifying they reviewed the results.
Half the household wells here are shallower than 240 feet.
That comes from 14,789 household wells in Maryland's drilling records. Most wells of every kind here are 180 to 300 feet deep. Wells as deep as Queen Anne's County's are usually better protected from fertilizer and bacteria at the surface, but they can pick up more of what's in the rock, like arsenic and uranium. Typical household wells here go deeper than in 16 of the 23 other Maryland counties with enough drilling records.
How to find your own well's depth
Well depths: US Groundwater Well Database
Here's what we know about radon and PFAS in Queen Anne's County.
Queen Anne's County is in the EPA's lowest radon zone, so radon from well water is unlikely to be a problem. Radon guide
Between 2023 and 2025 the EPA had 2 town water systems in Queen Anne's County test for PFAS. None found any. No well in Queen Anne's County has public PFAS results, so the town systems are the best clue to what's in the groundwater nearby. PFAS guide
Radon zones: EPA Map of Radon Zones. PFAS: EPA tests of town water systems, 2023 to 2025
Questions people ask about well water in Queen Anne's County
Is well water in Queen Anne's County safe to drink?
17 of 45 wells tested in Queen Anne's County had nitrate over the limit, about 4 in 10. Across Maryland it's about 1 in 10. That's the highest share among the 18 Maryland counties with 10 or more tested wells, leaving out 1 county whose results are likely overstated. So test your own well for nitrate before you count on it.
Where can I get my well tested in Queen Anne's County?
Use a lab Maryland has certified for drinking water. Maryland's list is linked above, in the box about testing. Ask for bacteria, nitrate and arsenic, the tests that matter most in Queen Anne's County.
How deep are wells in Queen Anne's County?
Half the household wells here are shallower than 240 feet. Typical household wells here go deeper than in 16 of the 23 other Maryland counties with enough drilling records.
How does Queen Anne's County compare with the counties around it?
For nitrate, the share of tested wells over the limit: 1 of the 5 neighboring counties with data had a higher share than Queen Anne's County, at 38%. Kent had the most, at 55%. Groundwater doesn't stop at county lines, so Kent's 55% is worth knowing about if you live near it.
How often should I test my well in Queen Anne's County?
In Queen Anne's County, 2 of 2 tested wells had coliform bacteria, so the CDC's advice matters here: test for bacteria and nitrate every year, and right away after a flood, a repair, or any change in taste or smell.
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Where the Queen Anne's County numbers come from
- People on wells: 36,046 in Queen Anne's County, from EPA estimates built on the 2020 Census (Murray et al.).
- Lab tests: 494 well water samples from 63 wells in the Water Quality Portal, run by the USGS and EPA, 2001 to 2023.
- Well depths: 14,789 Maryland drilling records for Queen Anne's County, gathered in the US Groundwater Well Database (Lin and others, 2024).
- Neighboring counties: the 5 counties that share a border with Queen Anne's County, from the Census Bureau's county adjacency file.
- PFAS: EPA tests of 2 town water systems in Queen Anne's County under the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, 2023 to 2025.
- Radon: Queen Anne's County is zone 3 on the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
- State programs and links: Maryland Department of the Environment, checked November 1, 2026.