While there have been reports recently of pharmaceutical drugs detected in Lake Michigan, Milwaukee residents can rest assured the drugs have not made it into their drinking water.

“We don’t have the problem that other cities are having,” said Dewayne Stuermer, who has worked as a microbiologist at Milwaukee Water Works since 1994.

According to their Web site, the Water Works treats water from Lake Michigan with a multi-step process to protect public health and ensure quality water supply. Ozone gas, one of the most powerful disinfectants available, kills microorganisms like bacteria and protozoa, helps to eliminate cosmetic chemicals added into the water and removes taste and odor. Coagulation, settling, and filtration with anthracite coal and sand remove additional particles. Fluoride is also added for dental health.

A mixture of chlorine and ammonia is also added to treated water. Unlike Milwaukee, many cities who add chlorine do not add ammonia, which has been found to lead to serious problems. If chlorine mixes with organics in the water, it can produce carcinogens.

“Ammonia stops this, and maintains chlorine distribution in drinking water for a longer time, as far as the water goes through the system,” said Stuermer. “Without the ammonia the chlorine would oxidize faster, and we would need to add more.”

Currently Milwaukee Water Works is supplying its customers with some of the best drinking water in the nation. In late June 2007 the Environmental Protection Agency endorsed Milwaukee’s drinking water as among the highest quality available in the U.S.

“I think we received recognition because of all the testing we do. We have very few problems. Also, adding the ozone has been one of the major ways of maintaining quality,” said Stuermer.

The Milwaukee Water Works tests for over 500 substances in the drinking water it puts out, each substance with its own allowable concentration in the drinking water. The EPA requires 240 test samples a month from all areas of Milwaukee and the surrounding communities that receive water from Lake Michigan.

“It’s interesting; you’ll find most of the results are 0.0002. We can’t say that there is none of any given substance we test for in the water even if we think that there is none. We can’t say there is nothing because the technology isn’t out there to test any further,” said Stuermer.

So where exactly does Water Works get their water? There are two treatment plants located in Milwaukee. The larger of the two is the prominent limestone building easily seen from Lincoln Memorial Drive. The plant takes in 100 million gallons of water from Lake Michigan per day. A pipe which extends a mile out from the shore where the plant is located collects the water 50 feet below the surface. This is because the lake is 100 feet deep at that location, and the pipe is midway from the surface and the lake bottom. This ensures minimal sediments are collected with the water.

On the south side of the city there is another treatment plant which takes in 50-60 million gallons of water daily. A few years ago the pipe extending into the lake from the south side plant was lengthened from one mile to about 1.8 miles. The original intake was found to be too close to river runoff into the lake, and the extra length ensures less contamination.

Milwaukee’s drinking water was not always as pure as it is today. In 1993, over 100 deaths were attributed to a cryptosporidium outbreak in tap water. Aside from the fatalities, about 403,000 residents were affected by the outbreak.

This disaster prompted Milwaukee Water Works to update their water purification systems and make them what they are today. Over the past 10 years, over 100 million dollars in improvements have been implemented within the Water Works system.

So, when shopping for the purest water at the convenience store, stop and consider your options. Instead of paying big bucks for bottled water which probably comes from some other city’s tap, Milwaukee offers the purest of tap water for about four cents a gallon.

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