Well Water Nerd

Well water in Keweenaw County, Michigan

No public well test results have been compiled for Keweenaw County yet. The USGS national arsenic model estimates that 0% of the 1,770 people on private wells there draw water with arsenic above 10 ug/L, the EPA limit, based on geology, well depth and land use rather than local tests.

The strongest signal is coliform bacteria: Recommended for every private well, every year, too few samples to carry the headline but first on the test list below.

45 test results across 11 contaminants from at least 4 wells, 1986 to 1990; nitrate has the most at 8. Data refreshed September 15, 2026.

Compiled by Nick at Well Water Nerd from public records. How these pages are built

Data confidence: estimate. No state program or federal monitoring data for Keweenaw County has been compiled here yet, so the arsenic figure is the USGS national model, not a measurement. Treat a high estimate as a reason to test, not as your well's number. Measured results are added as states publish them.

An estimated 1,770 people in Keweenaw County get their drinking water from a private well, per USGS 2015 county water use. That is about 82% of residents.

Closer than the county

See the sampled wells near your address

The same records, drawn around one point: which wells within a few miles were sampled and what they found, how deep the wells next to you were drilled, and any leaking tank or cleanup site within a mile.

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What this means

Among contaminants with a federal limit, no tested sample in Keweenaw County came back above it. That is reassuring, but sampling is uneven: wells that were never tested are not in this data.

Iron and Chloride are widespread in local groundwater. They are mainly a staining and taste problem, but high manganese also carries a health advisory for infants.

What to test for in Keweenaw County

  1. 1
    Coliform bacteria
    Recommended for every private well, every year.
  2. 2
    Radon
    Median local reading is 100 pCi/L.
  3. 3
    Nitrate
    Recommended for every private well, especially near farms or septic systems.
  4. 4
    Lead
    Above the limit in 1 of 4 local samples; too few to quote a rate.
  5. 5
    Copper
    Detected in 100% of local samples.
  6. 6
    Iron
    Detected in 100% of local samples.
  7. 7
    Chloride
    Detected in 100% of local samples.
  8. 8
    Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
    7 leaking underground storage tank sites on record locally.
  9. 9
    Metals panel
    6 hazardous waste sites on record locally.

Test your Keweenaw County well for coliform bacteria, radon and nitrate

Certified lab analysis of your own tap water, bottles and prepaid return shipping included. The Essential well panel covers arsenic, uranium, nitrate, lead, copper, manganese, iron, sodium and bacteria; radon and PFAS are add-ons.

Order the Tap Score well water test kit, from $209Already tested? Upload the report

Just want bacteria checked first? Tap Score coliform and E. coli test, $99. Coliform and E. coli are the tests every well needs every year.

Want a quick look before paying for a lab? Home well water test strips on Amazon check hardness, iron, pH and nitrate in minutes. They are a screen, not a result: arsenic, bacteria, uranium and PFAS need a certified lab.

Affiliate links: the merchant pays us a commission and the price is the same for you. It does not change what the data above says. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Where to get a well tested in Michigan: certified labs, state programs and prices.

Already have results back? Get your lab report read against the Keweenaw County numbers, $29. Every line explained, ranked by what matters, with the fix for each.

Wells in Keweenaw County

802 domestic wells in Keweenaw County are on record with the state since 1967. 82% are drilled into bedrock, and the typical well is 157 feet deep (one in ten goes past 262 feet).

In a typical Keweenaw County well, bedrock starts about 15 feet down, the median yield is 6 gallons per minute, 20% of wells yield under 3 gallons per minute and usually need a storage tank.

Bedrock wells are where arsenic, uranium and radon come from: the water sits in fractures in granite and metamorphic rock and picks up whatever the rock carries. That is why testing for those three matters more here than in a dug or gravel well.

50
1970s
101
1980s
161
1990s
257
2000s
125
2010s
102
2020s

Find your own well's report

The state keeps the driller's report for most wells drilled since 1984. It tells you how deep your well is, where bedrock starts, and how much water it makes, which decides what treatment can work.

  1. Open Wellogic (EGLE) and choose Water Well.
  2. The record lists depth, casing, static water level, the pump test and the geologic log.

Michigan has required well records since 1966, so most drilled wells are on file.

Official help in Michigan

Two places to start that are not selling anything: the state program that answers private well questions, and its list of labs certified to run drinking water tests. A certified lab is the difference between a result you can act on and a number.

Contamination sources on record in Keweenaw County

Michigan EGLE records 7 leaking underground storage tank sites and 6 hazardous waste sites in Keweenaw County, among 24 regulated sites in total. Groundwater does not follow property lines, so a well within a few hundred feet of one of these is worth testing for what that site could release.

7
leaking underground storage tank sitesGasoline and heating oil that leaked from tanks move through groundwater as benzene, MTBE and other volatile organic compounds.
6
hazardous waste sitesSolvents, degreasers and metals from industrial sites can travel far in fractured bedrock.
11
registered underground storage tank sitesRegistered tanks are regulated and inspected; they matter most when they are old or near a shallow well.

Treatment that fits the local profile

Iron

Oxidizing filter whole-house; Water softener (low levels); Aeration plus filtration

Systems we would look at first

Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one, the merchant pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we list or what the data says.

For iron

Iron and manganese oxidizing filter

whole-house, at the point of entry, about $1,800

Air-injection or greensand media; fixes staining at the source.

Free, no obligation

Get on the list for a free in-home water test in Keweenaw County

No water treatment company serves Keweenaw County through Well Water Nerd yet. We are signing licensed companies on county by county: they test at your tap for free, walk you through the numbers, and quote treatment only if something needs fixing. Leave your details and you are first in line. Nothing is shared until a company joins for Keweenaw County, and you get an email naming it first.

What are you worried about?

The test is free and there is no obligation. No company is named yet; your details stay with us until one joins for your area, and we log the time and address of this request.

Common questions

How deep are wells in Keweenaw County?

The typical domestic well in Keweenaw County is 157 feet deep, based on 802 wells reported to the state since 1967. One in ten is deeper than 262 feet. 82% are drilled into bedrock.

How often should I test a private well in Keweenaw County?

Test for bacteria and nitrate every year. Test once for arsenic, uranium, radon, fluoride, manganese and PFAS, then again every three to five years or after any change in taste, color, or plumbing.

Towns in Keweenaw County

5 towns have fewer than 30 public samples and are included in the Keweenaw County totals above rather than shown separately: Allouez township, Eagle Harbor township, Grant township, Houghton township, Sherman township.

Counties near Keweenaw County

Closest first. Groundwater does not stop at a line on a map, so the next county over is a fair second opinion.

Want the numbers themselves? Download the Michigan dataset as CSV, every county and town, with the sources named.

Sources

  • USGS Water Quality Portal: 45 samples in Keweenaw County. Data from the Water Quality Portal, a service of USGS, EPA and USDA; groundwater samples collected by USGS and cooperators. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
  • USGS national arsenic model (Ayotte 2017): estimated share of 1,770 people on private wells in Keweenaw County above 10 ug/L of arsenic, from geology, well depth and land use. County estimates of domestic well users with arsenic above 10 ug/L from the USGS national logistic regression model (Ayotte, Medalie and Qi, 2017), with private well population from the USGS 2015 county water-use compilation (Dieter and others, 2018). Retrieved September 15, 2026.
  • Michigan Wellogic well records: 802 well records in Keweenaw County, 802 domestic. Water well records from Wellogic, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy statewide well database. Only aggregates are shown; owner names and addresses are never stored. Retrieved September 16, 2026.
  • Michigan EGLE regulated sites: 24 regulated sites located in Keweenaw County. Part 201 environmental contamination sites, underground storage tank facilities and Part 115 landfills from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Retrieved September 16, 2026.

Non-detects count as samples and are treated as zero when computing medians. Exactly at the limit counts as not above it. A sample belongs to the town containing the well's reported coordinates.