WDNR – Wisconsin public water supply system operators reduced by one-third their violations of monitoring or reporting requirements for drinking water and continued their stellar record of serving water that met all health-based standards in 2012, a recently released report shows.
Also, a record 30 communities received low interest loans or grants from the Department of Natural Resources to help upgrade water treatment plants, pipes and other infrastructure to improve drinking water safety.
"We're pleased with continued exemplary performance by Wisconsin water system operators and by the important progress many systems made to assure safe water into the future," says Jill Jonas, who directs the DNR Drinking and Groundwater Bureau.
Ninety-six percent, or 10,999 of 11,409 public water systems, met all health-based standards. These systems had no water samples exceeding health-based standards for regulated contaminants, according to the 2012 Annual Drinking Water Report.
DNR's increased emphasis on working to improve the safety of drinking water provided by smaller, non-municipally owned water systems is paying off – in 2012, monitoring and reporting violations dropped to 493 from 630 in 2011. Rural mobile home parks, apartment buildings and condominium complexes are among the non-municipal systems DNR has focused on because such water suppliers have tended to have more monitoring and reporting violations.
The department contracts with the Wisconsin Rural Water Association to provide technical help to these water suppliers, called OTM or "other-than-municipal" water systems.
"These systems are doing a much better job of collecting samples within the required time frame and reporting the results, providing more assurance that they are providing their customers with safe drinking water," says Jonas.
Read more from source: http://dnr.wi.gov/news/weekly/#art3