In 2019, Governor Tony Evers declared it would be the “year of clean drinking water.”  Speaker Robin Vos created a Water Quality Task Force (WQTF), and 14 public hearings were held across the state during 2019. 

In early 2020, Gov. Evers, the DNR, and the WQTF all issued reports about the status of our water quality in Wisconsin.  Thirteen state legislative proposals dealing with various water quality issues were drafted and worked on in legislative committees, making their way to the Assembly floor, and of those 13 bills, 11 were passed by the Assembly and moved on to the Senate for discussion/action.  None of those bills were brought to the Senate floor in 2020.

Therefore, our state legislature did not provide new regulations that could start addressing so many of the water quality issues needed to improve contaminated drinking water for those citizens and families using private well-water in their homes, or aging lead pipes in schools and daycares, summer camps, or funding support to help Wisconsin’s farmers practice best management methods to improve water quality where problems are identified.

Click here to read a 2015 article from the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, “Safe, clean drinking water eludes many Wisconsinites.”

For further water quality information, select from the sub-headings provided.