M.K DeSantis, Pegasus Technical Services for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Series: Drinking Water Quality

Drinking water quality varies across in Wisconsin. In communities with public utilities, drinking water is subject to disparate levels of treatment depending on local needs and budget concerns. Nearly one million households get their water from private wells, which depend on property owners for monitoring and treatment. Across the state, many natural processes and human activities can introduce pathogens and chemical contaminants into water supplies. Wherever their drinking water comes from, Wisconsinites can use various resources to better understand and improve its quality.
 
No one can say for sure how many lead pipes drinking water runs through on a daily basis around the United States, or where specifically those pipes are located.
Given the growing prominence of concerns about drinking water around Wisconsin, understanding what motivates well owners to test for contaminants can help inform educational campaigns about safe practices.
The state of Wisconsin is getting ready to parcel out $14.5 million to help communities replace thousands of lead service lines. However, short of digging up every single pipe in a community or surveying every property owner, there's no way to know for sure where all the lead is located.
An analysis released this week by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families found 4.6 percent of children in the state who were tested last year had lead poisoning, compared to Flint, Michigan's 4.9 percent.
Free water filters will be available to thousands of people in Milwaukee who live in homes with lead water service lines.
The state of Wisconsin is betting on manure digesters in rural northeastern Wisconsin to curb water pollution and other environmental problems linked to the spreading of manure on dairy farms.
As the state calls for ideas that use manure digesters to help improve drinking-water quality in Wisconsin, it's helpful to better understand how the actual functions of digesters align with the problem at hand.
Green Bay is the first Wisconsin city to get a half-million-dollar grant to help residents replace antiquated lead pipes.
More than 180 water fountains in the Milwaukee Public Schools district contained lead levels above EPA standards. There were 12,000 samples done of more than 3,000 water fountains and other water sources in the district's 191 buildings.
A Florida State University professor looked to Wisconsin to investigate how climate change might make people more vulnerable to groundwater-borne pathogens in the decades ahead.