Wisc. communities lack water treatment

At least 60 communities in Wisconsin don’t treat public drinking water supplies to kill bacteria and viruses despite state recommendations to do so, according to a report from the Wisconsin State Journal. Most of the communities are small and rural, while larger cities have programs in place to treat water with chlorine or ultraviolet light.

State drinking water officials say they can’t mandate disinfection, but they recommend it, especially now that recent research has confirmed the presence of viruses in underground aquifers. Similar research found that viruses enter drinking water through deteriorating pipes and can be linked to respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses.

Read more at the Wisconsin State Journal.

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