Nitrate and manganese are widespread in Stearns County wells.
2 widespread, 3 rare out of 5 health checks.
From 99 wells tested in Stearns County since 2000; 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
1 in 4 people 41,062 people
Nobody else tests these wells. Only you do.
People on wells: EPA researchers' 2020 estimate
How deep wells go here
Middle depth: some shelter from the surface, not complete.
Well depths: US Groundwater Well Database
Radon risk (a gas from rock)
Likely here. Test your home's air first.
Radon zones: EPA map
Here's how Stearns County compares with Minnesota and the counties around it.
Each result puts Stearns County next to the 9 counties that border it, on the chart's 0 to 50% scale.
These 2 are widespread in Stearns County wells.
Nitrate34 of 56 wells over
Manganese22 of 63 wells over
Too few tested to show: Benton, Wright.
These 3 are rare in Stearns County.
Arsenic0 of 61 wells over
* Likely overstated, so we don't rank it.
Lead0 of 62 wells over
Coliform bacteria turned up in 30 of 30 tested Stearns County wells, so test for it every year.
Coliform bacteria30 of 30 wells had it
Too few tested to show: Benton, Douglas, Kandiyohi, Meeker, Morrison, Pope, Sherburne, Wright.
E. coli31 of 31 wells had it
Too few tested to show: Benton, Douglas, Kandiyohi, Meeker, Morrison, Pope, Sherburne, Wright.
E. coli means human or animal waste is getting in, so if a test of your Stearns County well finds it, boil drinking water until the well is fixed.
Iron reached staining levels in 25 of 63 tested wells, and it isn't a health risk.
Iron stains25 of 63 wells had it
About 4 in 10 of the 99 wells tested in Stearns County have a test from 2020 or later.
With 38 wells tested since 2020, age matters less here than who did the testing and why.
Most Stearns 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 4 things to check in Stearns County.
- Bacteria
- Nitrate
- Manganese
- Arsenic
What Minnesota offers well owners
- Free testingWe didn't find a free program for all of Minnesota. Minnesota's private well page
- Certified labsMinnesota's list of certified labs
- Well recordsMinnesota's well record search
- New wellsThe well contractor must collect an initial water sample after construction to test for coliform bacteria, nitrate, and arsenic before the well is used.
Half the household wells here are shallower than 73 feet.
That comes from 17,290 household wells in Minnesota's drilling records. Most wells of every kind here are 53 to 106 feet deep. Wells as deep as Stearns 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 are shallower than in 80 of the 86 other Minnesota counties with enough drilling records.
Look up your own well's depth in Minnesota's well record search, or see how to find it.
Well depths: US Groundwater Well Database
Here's what we know about radon and PFAS in Stearns County.
Stearns County is in the EPA's highest radon zone. Radon from well water adds to the radon in your indoor air, so test your air first, and your water too if the air is high. Radon guide
Between 2023 and 2025 the EPA had 8 town water systems in Stearns County test for PFAS. 1 of them had at least one test above 4 ng/L, the new EPA limit for PFOA and PFOS. The highest single result was 18 ng/L of PFOS. Only 19 wells in Stearns County have 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 Stearns County
Is well water in Stearns County safe to drink?
34 of 56 wells tested in Stearns County had nitrate over the limit, about 6 in 10. Across Minnesota it's about 1 in 14. That's the highest share among the 54 Minnesota counties with 10 or more tested wells. So test your own well for nitrate before you count on it.
Where can I get my well tested in Stearns County?
Use a lab Minnesota has certified for drinking water. Minnesota's list is linked above, in the box about testing. Ask for bacteria, nitrate, manganese and arsenic, the tests that matter most in Stearns County.
How deep are wells in Stearns County?
Half the household wells here are shallower than 73 feet. Typical household wells here are shallower than in 80 of the 86 other Minnesota counties with enough drilling records.
How does Stearns County compare with the counties around it?
For nitrate, the share of tested wells over the limit: Stearns County, at 61%, had a higher share than all 9 neighboring counties with data. Groundwater doesn't stop at county lines, so Pope's 26% is worth knowing about if you live near it.
How often should I test my well in Stearns County?
In Stearns County, 30 of 30 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 Stearns County numbers come from
- People on wells: 41,062 in Stearns County, from EPA estimates built on the 2020 Census (Murray et al.).
- Lab tests: 3,137 well water samples from 99 wells in the Water Quality Portal, run by the USGS and EPA, 2000 to 2025.
- Well depths: 17,290 Minnesota drilling records for Stearns County, gathered in the US Groundwater Well Database (Lin and others, 2024).
- Neighboring counties: the 9 counties that share a border with Stearns County, from the Census Bureau's county adjacency file.
- PFAS: EPA tests of 8 town water systems in Stearns County under the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, 2023 to 2025.
- Radon: Stearns County is zone 1 on the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
- State programs and links: Minnesota Department of Health, checked November 1, 2026.