Is Kenosha Tap Water Safe to Drink?

2020 Consumer Confidence Report Data

KENOSHA WATER UTILITY, PWS ID: 23000461

When you drink Kenosha tap water, you’re drinking clean, high quality water. Kenosha’s drinking water meets or exceeds all state and federal water quality standards. The Kenosha Water Utility’s state certified laboratory tests Kenosha’s drinking water more than 10,000 times per year. The drinking water quality information in this report covers the period of January 2020 to December 2020.

Water System Information - If you would like to know more about the information contained in this report, please contact Ryan Spackman, Director of Water Production, at (262) 653-4331.

Opportunity for input on decisions affecting your water quality - The Kenosha Water Utility Board of Water Commissioners meets on the second and last Monday of each month at 5:30 PM in Room 202 of the Municipal Building, 625 52nd Street, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Meeting dates, times, and locations are subject to change. Please call the Kenosha Water Utility at (262) 653-4308 to confirm.

Health Information

Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791.

Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water than the general population. Immunocompromised individuals such as persons with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, persons who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune systems disorders, some elderly, and infants can be particularly at risk from infections. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. The EPA and the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines on appropriate means to lessen the risk of infection by Cryptosporidium and other microbial contaminants are available from the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791.

Sources of Water

The Kenosha Water Utility has three active sources of water, all of which are in Lake Michigan. There are two intakes at a depth of about 35 feet; the third intake is at a depth of five feet. To obtain a summary of the source water assessment please contact Ryan Spackman at (262) 653-4331.

Educational Information

The sources of drinking water, both tap water and bottled water, include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.

Contaminants that may be present in source water include:

• Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations and wildlife.
• Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban storm water runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining or farming.
• Pesticides and herbicides, which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban storm water runoff and residential uses.
• Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are by-products of industrial processes and petroleum production, and can also come from gas stations, urban storm water runoff and septic systems.
• Radioactive contaminants, which can be naturally occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.

In order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink, the EPA prescribes regulations that limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. Food and Drug Administration regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water, which shall provide the same protection for public health.

Definitions

MCLG Maximum Contaminant Level Goal: The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLGs allow for a margin of safety.

N/A Not Applicable

ND Not Detected

NTU Nephelometric Turbidity Units: A measure of cloudiness

pCi/L Picocuries per liter

ppm parts per million, or milligrams per liter (mg/L)

ppb parts per billion, or micrograms per liter (µg/L)

TCR Total Coliform Rule

µS/cm Microsiemens per centimeter

Detected Contaminants

Your drinking water was tested for many contaminants last year. We are allowed to monitor for some contaminants less frequently than once a year. The following tables list only those contaminants that were detected in your water. If a contaminant was detected within the last 5 years, it will appear in the tables below along with the sample date.

Microbiological Contaminants

Disinfection Byproducts

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Inorganic Contaminants

Regulated contaminants tested for but not detected in our system: antimony, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cyanide, mercury, nitrite, selenium & thallium (Sample Date 2020).

Lead and Copper

Radioactive Contaminants

Sythentic Organic Contaminants

Turbidity Monitoring

In accordance with s. NR 810.29, Wisconsin Administrative Code, the treated surface water is monitored for turbidity to confirm that the filtered water is less than 0.3 NTU. Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness of water. We monitor for it because it is a good indicator of the effectiveness of our filtration system. During the year, the highest single entry point turbidity measurement was 0.066 NTU. The lowest monthly percentage of samples meeting the turbidity limits was 100 percent (zero turbidity samples exceeded the turbidity limits in 2020).

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Unregulated Contaminants

Unregulated contaminants are those for which the EPA has not established drinking water standards. The purpose of unregulated contaminant monitoring is to assist the EPA in determining the occurrence of unregulated contaminants in drinking water and whether future regulation is warranted. The EPA required us to participate in this monitoring.

Unregulated contaminants tested for in 2019 but not detected in our system: germanium, monochloroacetic acid, tribromoacetic acid, 1 pesticide byproduct, 8 pesticides, 10 cyanotoxins, 3 alcohols & 3 semi-volatile organic compounds.

Other Monitored Parameters

The following are other drinking water quality parameters that are monitored throughout the year.

Additional Health Information

If present, elevated levels of lead can cause serious health problems, especially for pregnant women and young children. Lead in drinking water is primarily from materials and components associated with service lines and home plumbing. The Kenosha Water Utility is responsible for providing high quality drinking water but cannot control the variety of materials used in plumbing components. When your water has been sitting for several hours, you can minimize the potential for lead exposure by flushing your tap for thirty seconds to two minutes before using water for drinking or cooking. If you are concerned about lead in your water, you may wish to have your water tested. Information on lead in drinking water, testing methods and steps you can take to minimize exposure is available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline or at www.epa.gov/safewater/lead.

If you think you have a lead service, please call (262) 653-4315 or email lead@kenosha.org to find out more information about having your service removed as part of the 2021 grant program offered by the Kenosha Water Utility and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Information on Monitoring for Cryptosporidium

Our water system began a two-year Cryptosporidium monitoring program in October 2015, in accordance with the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule requirements. No oocysts* were found in any of the 24 monthly samples (October 2015 to September 2017).

*oocyst: A hardy, thick-walled stage of the life cycle of certain parasites. This is the stage that serves to transfer them to new hosts.

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