Milwaukee Waterworks, WI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5.3 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.
Milwaukee Waterworks at a glance
Milwaukee Waterworks serves about 626,000 people through 231,851 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. EPA system ID: WI2410100. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Milwaukee Waterworks's lead record
Against the period ending 2020 (6.2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Milwaukee Waterworks is 7.2 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 5.3 ppb |
| 2020 | 6.2 ppb |
| 2017 | 7.2 ppb |
Against other Wisconsin systems
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. Milwaukee Waterworks's 5.3 ppb sits at the 89th percentile in Wisconsin and the 92nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Milwaukee County
16 other systems share Milwaukee County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Milwaukee Waterworks. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| West Allis Waterworks | 63,240 | 2.4 ppb |
| Wauwatosa Waterworks | 49,064 | 8.4 ppb |
| North Shore Water Commission | 35,598 | 11 ppb |
| Oak Creek Waterworks | 32,104 | 2 ppb |
| Franklin Water Utility | 22,500 | 3 ppb |
| South Milwaukee Waterworks | 21,340 | 7.7 ppb |
| Cudahy Waterworks | 18,659 | 13 ppb |
| Greendale Waterworks | 14,393 | 0.32 ppb |
| Whitefish Bay Waterworks | 14,272 | 4.7 ppb |
| Shorewood Waterworks | 13,535 | 3.2 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Milwaukee, 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 Milwaukee 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.