Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support for this August 14, 2025.
Big thank you to Crockett's septic sponsor in the next half an hour so we can hang out
with Jen McNally, our good friend from Natural Resources Groundwater Educator with UW Extension
Wood County.
Jen, good to have you with us.
Hi, James.
Nice to be here.
I always appreciate the time in really getting a chance to really dive into topics that
we don't always get a chance to in life, you know, and especially having somebody that
really knows what they're talking about like yourself.
The topic today, I think is a really important one that we don't come back to very often.
We don't get a chance to bring up very often.
This is going to be your annual reminder.
That's perfect.
Yes.
We got tips for testing your water in a great world.
You test your water and it's great.
It's fine.
Everything's perfect.
Even that scenario, the piece of mind it gives you, you know, I think about this when
this topic comes up often times.
So I think right away going into this, thinking about that and that piece of mind it can give
you the doing something like this, I think is a really good idea.
But I think it's the question right away.
People often wonder about water testing and whether it's something that, you know, what
do we do here?
Sure.
Yeah.
That's mostly the first question I get.
Should I test my water and there's really kind of two camps after that.
So there's two primary ways that your drinking water reaches your faucet.
The first is going to be if it's supplied by a municipality or water utility.
And those are often for folks who live in the city or a village.
Best way to know if you have city water or it's provided by a utility is if you receive
a water bill.
It's a good note, right?
Where the other option is is that you have your own private well on your property.
And in that case, you know, you have a well that has a pump in it and they're pumping
a water, it's pumping water directly from that well into your home.
Kind of nice thing about both of those scenarios for Wood County residents is whether you
have a municipal water or you have a private well water, both of them are coming from the
same source.
So all of the drinking water in the county, it comes from groundwater.
And underground.
So you really know different whether you have city water or wild water.
When it comes to testing though, the nice thing or a perk or one of the things you pay
for in that utility bill is that your utility is routinely testing your water and watching
over it and kind of being, you know, monitoring it for your sake.
So in that case, probably not as critical that you test your water because somebody's already
doing it for you.
If you have a private well, absolutely should be testing your water.
Yeah.
And are we going to get into this?
I pre-read a lot of this and everything, but I didn't, I don't know like the back of
my hand.
Like I'd like to right now.
When is there a, is there a certain time that it's a good time to test your water?
Is there a good time of the year to do that or not?
Great question.
So it depends, we say at the bare minimum, if you have a private well, you should test
annually at least once a year.
Now we do tell people that if they are interested in kind of learning more about their private
well water quality, they could space that out to 18 months.
And then what you get is over like four years, you'll hit every season to see if there's
some seasonality to it, which can be kind of nice.
Or if you notice that you're having kind of a change in water quality during a specific
time of year, that would also be a great time to test.
So there isn't one prescribed season necessarily.
In winter time, you're not going to get as much like groundwater movement and stuff.
Oh, sure.
So you're kind of going to get more of like what we would consider like base or background
conditions.
Spring, you know, you're going to have a little bit more runoff.
So if that's something you might be concerned about or have questions about, that might
be a good time to consider testing as well.
So those are a little bit of different options.
If you're in the city and you have city water and you don't necessarily want to test,
but you want to know what your water quality is, the utilities I required by the state of
Wisconsin to provide what's called their consumer confidence report.
And so you can just Google your water utility and they post that report on their website.
Some some utilities will send that report out to their to their water users.
It really just depends.
Or the other option that you can do too is everybody has access to the DNR's website.
And they have a database with all public water sources.
So there's five different types of public water sources.
They all have big names and different things.
Municipalities are one of those.
But they're all required to do routine sampling and those results are all publicly available.
So you can go in and you can Google and you can look.
Same applies for like restaurants, churches, bars.
You can see all of their water testing results if you're curious about knowing exactly what
those results are.
If we stop the interview right now, Jen would be good.
I don't know that that's common knowledge.
I don't think a lot of people know that.
No, that is not common knowledge at all.
It can be a little bit difficult to find DNR's website.
It's not always easy to navigate.
It's getting way better though.
But even if you just Google public water supplies on the DNR's website, you should be able
to find it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Didn't mean the sidetrack.
No.
No.
No water or the type of waters we get and everything and to a degree, I think it's comforting
and lack of a better word and also kind of nice that we only really have two different
areas we get with the focus on here.
But then the question comes up where we kind of started, should I test my water?
Yeah.
So if you're a public water supply, probably not as necessary as we talked about, unless
you notice a really weird change in water quality, like something very noticeable, that
it might be a good time.
Or there are specific cases where certain individuals may require, you know, a different
testing than what they water utilities doing, either for like health reasons or something.
And in that case, it might be a good idea to go get a water quality test done.
For private well owners, like I said before, absolutely should be testing at least once
a year for everybody who owns a private well.
And we say at the bare minimum, you should be testing for bacteria and nitrate because
those are the two contaminants that have the most one, they're the most common, but they
also have the most pressing health concerns as well.
And there's going to be, I'm going to call out a special group of people here, women who
are pregnant, thinking of becoming pregnant or like childbearing age or have small children.
This is absolutely critical because there are some pretty significant potential health impacts
to that group of folks.
And so we absolutely want them testing their water.
And as Jen has touched on a number of times with this one, this is a real case by case
kind of thing.
Every location, every well or private or whatever is going to be a different thing and have
different elements to worry about or something.
There's no one size fits always something like this.
And you know your area, especially if you've been on this property for a while or anything,
know the things to look out for.
I encourage you to look at them even more, especially with the notes that you mentioned
there, Jen.
Thank you for that.
Yeah.
So bacteria and nitrate, like I said, are the big ones.
And that's across the board pretty much for anywhere in the state.
We want people to really watch out for those ones and to keep an eye on those.
Arsenic and lead are two other ones that are commonly tested for.
We say you can test for those probably every five years and be safe.
Those really are influenced by the geology, which doesn't change a whole lot.
So you know, once you do that test, you're kind of, you have a pretty good understanding.
Bacteria and nitrate change frequently.
And that's why we really want people to be, to be testing for those things.
There are a lot of other tests that people can do.
And you know, that can be kind of confusing when you're going to or looking at water quality
testing.
It's like, what the heck should I be testing for?
If you've never tested your, your well water before, one of the things that we tell people
that they may want to consider starting with is something a lot of labs will have like
what's called a homeowner's package.
And it usually kind of, it contains like a suite of things that they can test for.
Usually nitrate and bacteria are a part of that alkalinity, hardness, pH, chlorides,
acidity, and really what that does is that just gives a really nice baseline or background.
And it's a great place for us to start in understanding what your water quality might
be.
And if there's any concerns, chlorides and nitrates and bacteria are also kind of what we
consider to be tracers.
So if those are elevated or kind of out of whack, it can give us a good idea that there's
probably other things that are influencing that well water quality.
And we can really start digging deeper and looking at what other tests might be necessary
at that point.
So that's a great place to start for homeowners.
And then there's the certainly, you know, maybe hopefully from most people out there,
your water has been fine.
And then all of a sudden you notice something different, something maybe a taste, maybe
an appearance or something like that should probably test for those situations too.
Yeah, that's another situation outside of the annual testing.
If you notice a change, anytime that's a great time to test, just to be on the safe side.
The other one, you know, with the situation in Milwaukee right now, I think one that we
don't talk about enough to is if your well ever is influenced by flood waters, absolutely
do not drink that water until you get it tested.
Do you?
Yeah.
Not kind of wood.
Hopefully we don't have the situation.
But it's a good thing for folks to be aware of.
Outside of that normal testing, you know, there are certain areas in this date, not so
much in Wood County, where there's very specific concerns.
A lot of times related to like the geology, arsenic is one of those we have certain areas
in this date where we really tell people, you should be testing for this annually.
Radium can be another one right on.
So pay attention to your health department a lot of times is a great source for that information,
knowing if you're in, you know, areas where you should be watching out for something.
When it comes to the labs, these tests that they're doing, are they able to test for multiple
contaminants?
Are they able to do things like that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Most labs can test for multiple different contaminants.
When it comes to choosing a lab or where you want your water tested, they think we tell
folks, go with a state certified lab.
There are a lot of places out there that will provide you great information about your
water quality, including some nitrate concentrations and things like that.
And that's great for kind of getting an idea of what your water quality is.
But if you really want to truly know the best way is to go through a certified lab.
They're all certified by the state of Wisconsin in the same way.
And that way, you know, no matter which lab you use, your results are going to be accurate.
So we're lucky in Wood County.
We got a couple different options that folks can use for testing.
So Wood County actually has its own water lab in the health department.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
Right down on the river block building, which is super convenient for folks.
They are certified to test for nitrate and bacteria.
So great place to go to get those basic tests done, super easy and convenient.
Wisconsin Rapids, lighting and water works also has their own lab, which is also convenient
for folks.
They test for a whole suite of things are certified to test for a whole suite of things,
including bacteria.
They're not certified for nitrate, but again, they're a great source.
So if you take your water sample there and get it tested, you can have it tested for
nitrate, but let's say it's for informational purposes only.
If you were looking for that homeowner's package or a lab that's certified in a much
broader array of contaminants, then your best bet in closest would be the UWSP water and
environmental analysis lab.
That's on the UWSP campus and the college and natural resources.
Mm-hmm.
Encourage to reach out to them for those concerns, those to find out more about that.
How to test.
That's another part of this.
They're right.
I'm glad you brought that in the notes, because I got caught up in a bunch of the information.
I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right.
That's important.
You're not just going to cup the water with your hands, you're not going to never going
to make it a time.
Right.
Or how the heck do I get in here?
How do I transport water?
Yeah.
Exactly.
So, depends on which lab you go through, labs will have specific testing kits that you
need to use, because their bottles are sterilized, and in some cases, depending on what you're
testing for, they're preserved as well.
And so, you really want to reach out to whatever lab you decide to use.
And most labs will send you a test kit free in the mail, so making it super easy, so you
don't have to go visit them in order to get the test kit.
Here in Wood County, you can also stop by the UW Extension office, and we have test kits
that we can give you for all three of those labs, as a matter of fact.
So, great, great one-stop shop.
So, once you get your test kit in the mail, it should contain everything you need for
your water test.
And I know sometimes people are a little like, how technical it is, that's difficult.
For most tests, it's really not.
All you really need to do is, one of the big suggestions they say, don't collect a water
sample from a faucet that has a swivel faucet.
So, and the reason why is if you're testing for bacteria, bacteria likes dark, moist
environments, and that swivel faucet is a great spot to grow bacteria.
Oh, and the thought of that.
Right?
Kind of gross when you think about it.
No, I know what I'm doing.
Deep cleaning.
Deep cleaning.
So, if you want to avoid a false bacteria test, use a stationary faucet, bathroom sinks
a lot of time.
Don't have the swivel faucet.
So, that's a great one.
Always suggest wiping it down really good with a bleach cloth or solution beforehand.
And then let the water run for about five minutes.
Open up your test bottle.
Don't touch the inside because your fingers are also full of bacteria.
And then fill the bottle and close it up.
And that is about all it takes to collect a water sample.
So.
Not too long, not much of an inconvenience, especially compared to the information you're
receiving.
Yeah.
Again, I go back to where I started with that peace of mind.
And sometimes that is, oh, there is something that we need to make better, clear up, or
whatever.
Right.
But knowing that at least as much as, oh, my water's fine, great peace of mind either way.
Exactly.
One of the things, and we're speaking with our friend Jen from UW Extension.
One of the things that I appreciate about you, Jen, I appreciate about it UW, is we've
had these conversations before, whether private or on the air here.
And we've talked about this topic and covered certain things and maybe certainly haven't
covered like the depth and the way that you did here.
But it's this last part here that I appreciate so much.
What happens after I get my test results?
Yeah.
I don't feel like we touch on that part.
I don't know if I've really talked other than people from extension when this topic comes
up.
I don't think we've really gotten into this like we don't, and I think that's an important
part of the conversation.
It's a huge part of the conversation.
It's also a huge part of the conversation when it comes to people, whether they want
a test or not.
And one of the things I stress about water testing, because sometimes there is hesitancy.
If I test and it comes back and something's wrong, what happens then?
And people think that there might be a negative consequence or they'll be forced to do something.
And I want to stress that when you have your water tested on your private well, it is
for informational purposes only.
It's really so that you can make an informed decision on the next steps that you want
to take.
The county is not going to come in and force you to do anything.
The state is not going to force you to come in and do anything.
It's really just for your information.
And so I think that's a big point that I want to stress for folks.
Once you get your test results, usually those test results are male to you in the male.
And labs try and do a good job of explaining those.
They can be confusing, though to breed.
So I encourage you, if you have questions about your water test results, county health
department, the county land and water conservation department, or myself a county extension,
are great resources to come in.
We can walk you through and help explain what those test results mean, specifically.
These are usually going to flag something if there is an issue.
And the good thing is, for the most part, if there are issues or things that don't seem
right with the water quality, we can address those, usually with treatment options.
And again, those county departments and myself at extension can help walk you through what
those different options are and how you can go about pursuing that treatment.
One of the beauties of all the different people you just mentioned, their organizations
and everything, these are nonprofits that are designed to help their community.
So there is, you know, any questions you ask any of this, this is part of the job.
They want to answer those questions.
They want to help with these things.
And I think the idea, again, of knowing this stuff is just as important as the data you're
going to get back.
You know, so I cannot think of anybody out there that shouldn't test their water and do
that.
I think, you know, finding the right time of the year for you and your home to do that,
I think is a key part of this too, and reaching out for information.
They'll be hesitant to do that to ask any questions.
There are no silly questions, especially when we're talking about our water.
Yeah.
And the other question that sometimes people will have too is if you're feeling, there's
usually a form that they ask you to fill out when you have your water tested.
And on there, they'll ask you about your well and your well construction as well.
And a lot of folks don't know that because that's not very easy.
Again, that the land conservation department and myself and extension can really help find
that information for you too.
So whether it's about water quality, well construction, testing in general, we're always
great resources to come to if you have questions.
And like you said, more than happy to answer them because there are no silly questions.
We really want to make sure that you're getting the information and that you're making informed
decisions about your drinking water.
I've already covered all the silly questions.
You don't have to worry about it.
I got that on code.
Jen, if people want answers to some of those questions, I want to reach out to you.
How can they get a hold of you?
Sure.
The best way to get a hold of me is through the UW extension, a general telephone number.
And our telephone number is 715-421-8440.
If you call that number and say I have water questions, they're going to put you directly
through to me.
Otherwise, Google us on the website too for Wood County UW Extension.
And you can find all of our contact information and email addresses there.
Always good talking with you.
Thanks for the time, Jen.
You're welcome.
And thank you, everybody, for joining us for another edition of The Rapids Report,
proudly brought to you by Kraket Sceptic here at WFHR.
