Project: Water Watch Wisconsin

Mercury taints the fish. Nitrates, pesticides and endocrine disruptors are seeping into private well water. Trout streams are running dry. In this series, the Center is examining the many threats to Wisconsin’s water supply and water quality.

Land use is a factor boosting the level of nitrate in the water in Wisconsin. In the Upper Midwest, millions of acres of grassland have been converted into corn, soy and other crops since 2008, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers. Here, a farmer harvests corn near Blair in Trempealeau County.

Erik Daily / La Crosse Tribune

A combine in Trempealeau County. Millions of acres of Upper Midwest grassland — which leaches little nitrogen into aquifers — have been converted to nitrogen-hungry corn, soy and other crop fields since 2008.

Failure at the Faucet

Nitrate in drinking water systems is increasing and “current management activities to limit nitrate pollution have questionable effectiveness.”

— the Wisconsin Groundwater Coordinating Council

According to state estimates, nitrate is at unsafe levels in an estimated 94,000 Wisconsin households.

Read: Nitrate in water widespread, current rules no match for it

Major projects in Water Watch Wisconsin

Failure at the Faucet

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. Nearly half the private wells are unsafe, one study found.

Read: Safe, clean drinking water eludes many Wisconsinites

Drying Up

Across central Wisconsin, in a region known as the Central Sands, residents have watched water levels in lakes and small streams drop for years. In a state with about 15,000 lakes and more than a quadrillion gallons of groundwater, it is hard to believe that water could ever be in short supply. Experts say, however, that the burgeoning number of so-called high-capacity wells is drawing down some ground and surface water.

Read: Groundwater war pits farms against fish

Murky Waters

The Capital Times and Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism proudly present Murky Waters, a four-part series examining threats to the quality of the Madison area’s spectacular lakes, and ambitious new efforts that seek to improve them. Researchers around the world are watching our lakes in hopes of adapting these lessons to troubled bodies of water in other areas.

Read: Leaky sewer pipes could export viruses to lakes

All reports

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 (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 (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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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.