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Drinking water report: 96 percent of public systems meet all health-based standards

Weekly News Article Published: September 15, 2009 by the Central Office

MADISON – More than 96 percent of Wisconsin’s 11,446 public water systems served drinking water that met all health-based standards in 2008, a performance particularly impressive given widespread flooding in southern Wisconsin, according to a newly released report on those systems’ performance statewide.

“During times of limited resources and despite challenging circumstances, Wisconsin utilities, DNR staff, and the various associations and other partners working to assure safe drinking water are doing an exceptional job,” says Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank.

DNR recently submitted “Safe Water on Tap: 2008 Annual Drinking Water Report” [PDF 1.46MB] to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to meet requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The report summarizes Wisconsin’s public water systems’ performance as a whole between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2008, according to Jill Jonas, who leads the Department of Natural Resources drinking water and groundwater program.

Wisconsin has more of these systems than any other state but Michigan, ranging from utilities serving the state’s largest communities, to churches, restaurants and taverns. About 3.9 million of Wisconsin’s 5.63 million residents get their drinking water from community public water systems while the rest tap private wells.

Flooding in June 2008 triggered federal disaster declarations in 30 counties in Wisconsin and caused more than an estimated $765 million in damage to homes, businesses, crops and public property, making it Wisconsin’s most expensive natural disaster ever, the report notes. But DNR staff and communities have worked hard over the past decade to ensure that all new municipal drinking water facilities are flood-proofed and that older facilities have been modified to be protected, Jonas says.

As a result, only one municipally-owned system was among the 24 public water systems that shut down or issued a boil water advisory after suspect bacteriological tests due to flooding in 2008. The vast majority of the rest were small operations like taverns and mobile home parks, the report notes.

Bacterial contamination, arsenic, radium top violations

Of the 3.6 percent of Wisconsin public water systems reporting at least one violation of health-based standards, their elevated contaminant levels did not mean that people who drank the water got sick; it means users were exposed to what EPA has judged to be an unreasonable risk of illness, or that the system failed to treat its water to extent necessary.

Bacterial contamination remained the top concern: 353 water systems, or 3.1 percent, had violations, potentially exposing 80,000 Wisconsinites to contaminants that can cause sudden illness.

The second most common violation was elevated levels of arsenic, with 17 systems with violations, followed by radium with 11 systems reporting violations, down from 31 systems the previous year. Both arsenic and radium are naturally occurring contaminants stemming from Wisconsin’s geology.

The report details the efforts made by DNR staff and water associations to help public water systems serve safe drinking water. Those efforts include reviewing hundreds of thousands of water sample results, inspecting all municipal systems to short-circuit problems, providing training, reviewing construction plans for new water systems and improvements to existing facilities, and providing more than $23 million in low-interest loans to communities in fiscal 2008 to complete those construction and improvement projects.

“Wisconsin public water systems provide a great value at a great cost but it’s getting harder,” Jonas says. “We’re going to have to remain diligent over coming years to make sure that with limited resources we focus more and more on preventing contamination because it’s the least expensive way of protecting our drinking water.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Lee Boushon (608) 266-0857; Mark Nelson (608) 267-4230

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