(The Center Square) – A new report from the University of Wisconsin’s La Follette School of Public Affairs says the state has excellent water quality, but the state’s water utilities do not have excellent finances.
The new report cards from the Wisconsin Waterworks Excellence Project look at water quality, infrastructure and operations, finances and communications from Wisconsin’s 570 water utilities.
“Wisconsin has a reputation for some of the best drinking water in the country, and this report bears that out. However, it’s critical that we identify areas for improvement so that Wisconsinites may enjoy excellent tap water for generations to come,” lead researcher Manuel P. Teodoro said.
The report card shows 92% of Wisconsin’s water utilities get an A for their water quality. The other 8% all got Bs.
“Collectively, Wisconsin’s water utilities provide water that is far safer than what is required of them by law,” the report adds.
The grades were not equally as high for how local utilities ran their operations or how they paid for them.
“On the other hand, statewide results for Finance and Infrastructure & Operations raise concerns for sustainability,” the report’s authors wrote. “More than half of the state’s utilities earned A-B grades in these, but more than a quarter scored in the D-F range.”
And nearly 50% of water utilities scored an F on transparency.
Most of those Fs were driven by a lack of information at water utility websites, including the nearly 60% of utilities that didn’t have a consumer confidence report on their website, or the nearly 50% of utilities that didn’t have information about their rates online.
“In Wisconsin, where nearly all drinking water utilities are owned and operated by municipal governments, for municipal utilities transparency and public engagement contribute to trust in both tap water and institutions of government,” the report noted. “In order to maintain the public’s trust, customers must have ready access to information about their water’s quality, their water’s price, and their water utility organizations.”
Teodoro says he wants to revisit the report cards every two years, to give people in Wisconsin an “evolving” report on not just their water quality, but the other issues that make local water utilities so crucial across the state.
