Deforest Waterworks, WI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5.95 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2023). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. Lead was measured in sampled homes but the 90th percentile is under both action levels. EPA's health goal for lead is zero, so test your own tap if your home was built before 1986 or anyone in it is pregnant or a young child.
Who runs the water here
Deforest Waterworks serves about 10,500 people through 3,888 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Dane County, Wisconsin. EPA system ID: WI1130221. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Lead results over time
That is down 2.84 ppb from 8.79 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Deforest Waterworks is 8.79 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 5.95 ppb |
| 2020 | 8.79 ppb |
| 2018 | 2.8 ppb |
How Deforest Waterworks compares
Of the 947 Wisconsin systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.33 ppb; 6 are over 15 ppb right now and 71 have gone over at some point. Deforest Waterworks's 5.95 ppb sits at the 90th percentile in Wisconsin and the 93rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
42 other systems share Dane County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Deforest Waterworks. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Madison Water Utility | 272,000 | 1.8 ppb |
| Sun Prairie Utilities | 39,300 | 2.8 ppb |
| Fitchburg Utility Dist 1 | 29,900 | 2.3 ppb |
| Middleton Waterworks | 23,868 | 4 ppb |
| Waunakee Waterworks | 14,879 | 1.7 ppb |
| Verona Waterworks | 14,030 | 2.86 ppb |
| Stoughton Waterworks | 13,078 | 4.2 ppb |
| Oregon Waterworks | 11,200 | 4.97 ppb |
| Mcfarland Waterworks | 9,676 | 2.1 ppb |
| Cottage Grove Waterworks | 9,345 | 2.33 ppb |
Next steps for Deforest, WI
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Deforest, WI may offer free or low-cost kits through the utility. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Deforest Waterworks whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do.
These figures describe homes the utility sampled, not your tap. Only your service line record or a test of your own water answers the question for your house. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.