Water Quality

A watershed is an area of land that drains to a singular point or location. The water resources in Porter County supply our drinking water, irrigation for agriculture, recreational opportunities and provide wildlife habitat.

In Porter County, the landscape was morphed by glaciers many years ago and left the formation of the Valparaiso Moraine. Bisecting the county from east to west, this moraine forms a divide between two large watersheds. The ridge acts as the drainage divide in our county dictating whether waters run north to Lake Michigan or south into to the Kankakee River.

The Valparaiso Moraine separates the county into two large watersheds with eight digit hydrologic unit codes or HUCs. 

The northern portion of Porter County is in the Little Calumet-Galien (HUC8) watershed which flows into the Great Lakes and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean by means of the St. Lawrence river.

The south half of the county is considered to be part of the Kankakee (HUC8) watershed, flowing into the Mississippi River (second longest river in North America) and then eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico.