We don't think much about it really.
For most of us, a glass of water begins at the kitchen sink and - eventually - ends with a flush.
But where does Fremont get its water and what happens to it once it heads down the drain?
“All of our water comes from wells,” says Derril Marshall, general manager of the Fremont Department of Utilities. “The wells are fueled by an underground aquifer.”
Fremont uses 13 wells - eight in the city's well field about 2 1/2 miles south of town and five more spread throughout the city. Those wells are 75 to 90 feet deep, which allow for a natural filtering process.
“We have very minimal treatment,” Marshall says. “We have very good quality of water. We're fortunate that we don't have to add more chemicals or do filtration to get undesirable elements out of the water.”
There's a benefit to that, too. “We have a very low cost,” he adds.
Still, Fremont - like communities across the state - sends water in to be tested by Jack Daniel and his staff at the office of drinking water and environmental health for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
The state looks for bacteria, inorganic chemicals, synthetic organic chemicals, volatile organic chemicals and radionuclides in water samples.
In 2006, the lab processed 68,391 tests - just over 22,000 of which were for bacteria and almost 8,000 for nitrates.
“I found that I truly enjoyed doing this kind of work and people appreciated it,” he says.
Once water hits the drains, it heads to the wastewater treatment facility east of town where it is treated.
“We can treat almost 6 million gallons during peak hours,” says Keith Kontor, superintendent of the facility. “We're only running around 4.5 million gallons a day.”
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