On today’s show, host Greg Michaud interviews Joe Grande, the Water Resources Manager at Madison Water Utility. They discuss what’s in Madison’s drinking water, how consumers can have confidence in their tap water and stop buying bottled water, and what Madison Water Utility does to determine if water is meeting standards, as is disclosed in the recent Annual Drinking Water Quality Report. 

Grande describes how Madisonians get their tap water, which typically is sourced from 1-3 of Madison’s 20 wells. To produce their annual report, the Utility samples roughly 27,000 times over the course of a year. Online, you can type in your address and learn more about your water.

Two contaminants that Madison Water Utility is tracking are sodium and PFAS. Grande says they’re seeing high levels of sodium, some of over 60 milligrams per liter, which is over 10 times the amount that would normally be found in groundwater. These higher levels are coming from road salt applications. Grade adds that a new PFAS removal system will come on line for well 15, meaning it will again be operational by the end of summer. 

Joe Grande is the Water Resources Manager for Madison Water Utility. He is responsible for determining if the water complies with drinking water standards before it leaves the Utility and reaches the user. 

Featured image of a water droplet via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

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