Janesville, Wisconsin
What is the Water Quality in Janesville, Wisconsin?
Compared to other US cities, Janesville water quality ranks in the high-middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 26 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Radium is at very high levels: 29x health guidelines.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Janesville water.
What’s in Janesville water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Nitrate and nitrite – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 28 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
12 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Janesville have Lead contamination?
Yes, Janesville has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2017 showed concentrations up to 7.3 parts per billion (ppb).
The legal limit for lead is 15 parts per billion. Being well-below this level is a good thing.
- Concentrations between 3.8 ppb and 15 ppb put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels. Read more about the symptoms of Lead in water.
There is no safe level of lead for humans.
- The good news is that 99.99% of the lead can be removed.
See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.
Where does Janesville’s water come from?
Janesville’s water comes from the City of Janesville – Rock River watershed.
17 of the 21 water sources in the City of Janesville – Rock River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Markham Creek
- Rock River – Two sections
- 13 unnamed waterbodies in the watershed
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Fisher Creek, Marsh Creek, and Rock River Traxler Park’s Skier’s Platform Beach are in Good condition.
Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of three uses:
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Janesville’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Janesville can be surprising.
But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.
To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:
There is one solution that beats Brita, PUR, and expensive whole house systems.
- It costs less per gallon.
- Needs fewer filter changes.
- And it doesn’t make your water taste weird.
- Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out at least 85% of contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Janesville water.
- Brita can filter 15 contaminants and Lead depending on the filter.
- Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
- To filter out 26 of the 28 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your whole house.
- These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- Barium
- Bromodichloromethane
- Bromoform
- Ethylbenzene
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids
- Hexavalent chromium
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Radium
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
*Chlorination is an effective method of disinfecting/treating drinking water. You can then use a water filter to reduce the effects of chlorination byproducts to get the safest, cleanest water possible.
In Your Community:
Contact your local government officials and put pressure on them to invest in cleaner waterways and upgraded city water filtration and treatment.
Go to: https://www.janesvillewi.gov/government to find contact information for your local officials.