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Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/series/faucetfail/)

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Project: Failure at the Faucet

Frank Michna buys bottled water for drinking and cooking in his Caledonia home because of high levels of molybdenum and boron in his well.

Cole Monka / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Frank Michna buys bottled water for drinking and cooking in his Caledonia home because of high levels of molybdenum and boron in his well.

Series overview

Nearly half the private wells in Wisconsin have tested as unsafe.

— 2013 state researchers’ study of rural well water

In Wisconsin, a state whose very name evokes lakes, rivers and abundant water, hundreds of thousands of people may consume drinking water tainted with at least one contaminant.

Read: Safe, clean drinking water eludes many Wisconsinites

Environment

As rains intensify, sewage surges into Wisconsin waters

By Danielle Kaeding (Wisconsin Public Radio) | January 11, 2020

Climate change is bringing heavier rains, making it tougher to keep untreated sewage and stormwater out of the Great Lakes.

Failure at the Faucet

Most nitrate, coliform in Kewaunee County wells tied to animal waste

By Sarah Whites-Koditschek (Wisconsin Public Radio/Wisconsin Watch) and Coburn Dukehart Coburn Dukehart (Wisconsin Watch) | February 28, 2019

The latest findings from a study of drinking water wells and their surroundings finds manure from cows that is stored or spread on farm fields poses the highest risk for certain contaminants.

Failure at the Faucet

Fecal microbes found in 60 percent of sampled wells, raising concerns about dairy manure, septic waste

By Coburn Dukehart Coburn Dukehart (Wisconsin Watch) | June 8, 2017

Tests show waste from Kewaunee County’s 97,000 head of cattle contaminates majority of wells, especially after rainfall or snowmelt; human waste also a factor.

News about WCIJ

Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism wins top national award for drinking water project

By Wisconsin Watch Wisconsin Watch | May 1, 2017

The Society of Professional Journalists names ‘Failure at the Faucet’ the top investigative story among small independent news sites for 2016.

Failure at the Faucet

Wisconsin misses chances to cut risk of lead exposure in drinking water

By Cara Lombardo Cara Lombardo | January 15, 2017

Funding for childhood lead poisoning prevention is down in Wisconsin, and proposals to better protect children from lead in drinking water have stalled in the Legislature.

Failure at the Faucet

Milwaukee takes action to reduce lead in water; critics say it is not enough

By Cara Lombardo Cara Lombardo | January 15, 2017

The city of Milwaukee, with more than 70,000 lead service lines, has taken several steps in the past year to lower residents’ exposure to lead in drinking water, but activists say the city has not done enough.

Failure at the Faucet

‘Regulatory vacuum’ exposes Wisconsin children to lead in drinking water at schools, day care centers

By Cara Lombardo Cara Lombardo | December 18, 2016

Gaps in federal drinking water standards enforced by the state leave numerous school and day care sites untested for lead in drinking water; numerous lead service lines remain.

Failure at the Faucet

Wisconsin schools, day care centers slated for lead service line removal under new DNR program

By Cara Lombardo Cara Lombardo | December 18, 2016

Eighteen communities in Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, plan to replace lead lines leading to schools and day care centers. View the areas of the state where the work is planned.

Failure at the Faucet

Wisconsin DNR fails to update lead testing guidance in wake of Flint crisis

By Cara Lombardo Cara Lombardo | December 2, 2016

Nine months after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned against flushing water systems before testing for lead, the state Department of Natural Resources has not yet passed that advice on to public water systems in Wisconsin.

Failure at the Faucet

‘Strict’ pesticide rules fail to erase threat to Wisconsin’s drinking water

By Rachael Lallensack/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism | October 16, 2016

A 2007 survey of private drinking water wells found 1 out of 3 had pesticides or their breakdown chemicals; farm groups oppose push for tougher atrazine rules.

Load more stories

In this series

Overview — Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin’s 5.8 million residents are at risk of consuming drinking water tainted with substances including lead, nitrate, disease-causing bacteria and viruses, naturally occurring heavy metals and other contaminants.

Nitrate — Fertilizer and manure, and the rise of corn and soy, help pollute private water wells across Wisconsin. Costs land on water consumers.

Arsenic — The threats of this naturally occurring, ancient poison are made worse by manmade activities.

Badger Army Ammunition — The U.S. Army has left a legacy of toxic waste in scenic communities south of Baraboo. Now, hundreds of local residents may soon have access to safe drinking water from their home taps.

Lead — The federal Lead and Copper Rule fails to ensure Wisconsin’s drinking water is safe. Lead in drinking water, which has ignited a public health crisis in Flint, Michigan, is largely ignored as a potential contributor to elevated blood lead levels in thousands of Wisconsin children.

Radium — Dozens of communities struggle with aquifers contaminated by this radioactive element, a contaminant that occurs naturally in bedrock. The city of Waukesha has made a bid to tap water from Lake Michigan because of increased radium in its wells.

Strontium — Wisconsin has among the highest level in the U.S. of this unregulated element in its drinking water supplies. The EPA is studying whether to regulate this naturally occurring heavy metal in drinking water.

Pathogens — Disease-carrying viruses and bacteria are present in some drinking water. To save money, some communities use a new loophole to avoid sanitizing their municipal water, putting tens of thousands of their residents at risk.

Pesticides — Present in one-third of private wells tested in one study. Acute pollution has prompted atrazine prohibition zones, including much of Dane County.

About Failure at the Faucet

Reporters reviewed dozens of studies, interviewed many of the state’s foremost water quality scientists and scoured the state to find homeowners who cannot do something most of us take for granted — cup their hand under the kitchen tap and take a long, cool drink of water. Produced for The Confluence, a collaborative project involving the Center and students and faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Read more

drinking water overview map FINAL

Katie Kowalsky / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

This reporting is part of Water Watch Wisconsin, examining water quality and quantity issues statewide. Failure at the Faucet was supported by a grant managed by the Online News Association and funded by the Excellence and Ethics in Journalism Foundation, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Democracy Fund and the Rita Allen Foundation.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is a nonprofit organization.

If you value our work, please help support it.

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