Water Quality & Forever Chemicals
If "Madison water quality" brought you here, take a breath: this page is a plain-language summary of what public federal water records show for Madison, Wisconsin. It doesn't rule your tap safe or unsafe. The thing that truly changes from one address to the next is which utility serves you and the local sources it pulls from, and that's worth knowing before anything else.
1
PFAS detections in nearby water systems
EPA UCMR 5 (2021–2024) results matching the city name
0
Industrial PFAS facilities in city
EPA TRI 2024 reporting
0
DoD PFAS installations statewide
In Wisconsin
Madison's drinking water tends to come largely from deep groundwater wells rather than a surface reservoir, which sets it apart from many lake-fronting Great Lakes cities and is fairly well established for this part of south-central Wisconsin. Much of the surrounding region also relies on groundwater, though the specific wells and systems behind any given tap vary across the area.
Madison's supply runs through public systems and a network of wells, and homes a mile apart can sit on different ones, so the city-wide picture above may not be your faucet's story. The practical path is to identify the utility listed here for your address, read its annual Consumer Confidence Report, and call the system serving you with questions. That free homework is genuinely worth reviewing when evaluating an address around the isthmus.
Asking "is Madison water hard"? We don't publish a hardness number, and we won't make one up. Groundwater across much of the upper Midwest tends to run hard, but that's a regional tendency, not a reading for your tap. The sure way to know is a cheap test strip or your utility's CCR, which often lists hardness, useful intel for anyone tired of mystery spots on the glasses.
EPA required public water systems serving 3,300+ people to test 29 PFAS compounds between 2021 and 2024.
City-level numbers describe the broad pattern around Madison; two homes a mile apart can sit on different water systems with very different profiles. The address report fills that gap — it identifies the public water system serving a specific property, lists any PFAS detections on that exact system, and maps the nearby industrial and Superfund sources.
Live in Madison? Reduce PFAS exposure at home
NSF-certified pitcher and under-sink filters can remove 99%+ of PFOA and PFOS. We list the ones with real independent lab data — no marketing claims.
See recommended PFAS filters →Want to know what's actually in your Madison tap today?
EPA data tells you what your utility reported on the days they tested. A Tap Score kit tells you what's coming out of your faucet, right now. Mail-in lab, certified results in about a week. The same labs cities use.
Order a Tap Score kit →Guide
How to Check Drinking Water Quality Before Buying a Home
The 5-minute version of what an environmental consultant would look at.
Guide
PFAS “Forever Chemicals” — A Homebuyer's Guide
What PFAS are, why they matter, and what to do before closing.
How-to
How to Check for PFAS Near Your Address
A walkthrough of the federal datasets we pull from.
Checklist
Environmental Risks to Check Before Buying a House
A practical pre-offer checklist for buyers and agents.
This page summarizes what federal records such as UCMR 5 show for Madison, not a safety verdict. A detection isn't the same as an exceedance, and UCMR 5 covers larger systems, so a quiet result means nothing matched here, not a clean bill of health. For an address-level answer, check the specific system that serves your home.
Begin with the public system or systems listed on this page, then look up that utility's published contact details and yearly Consumer Confidence Report. Because neighboring Madison addresses can sit on different water systems, the utility serving your street may differ from a neighbor's, so confirm against your own address before trusting the city-level view.
Madison tends to draw largely on deep groundwater wells rather than a surface reservoir, which is fairly well established for this part of south-central Wisconsin. Much of the surrounding region also leans on groundwater, though the particular wells and public systems behind any single tap differ from one address to the next across the area.
We don't list a hardness figure for Madison. Groundwater across much of the upper Midwest tends to run hard, but that's a general regional pattern, not a measurement for your faucet. To know for certain, use an inexpensive test strip or check your utility's Consumer Confidence Report, which often reports hardness. It's a nuisance topic, not a health one.
Enter an address — we'll identify the serving water utility, pull PFAS detections, FEMA flood zone, and nearby Superfund sites, then give you a plain-English A–F grade. $19.99 single, $29.99 two-address bundle.
One-time report. PFAS, water violations, Superfund sites, flood zone, air quality, and a plain-English A–F grade for the address.
More Wisconsin data: Superfund sites · PFAS in Wisconsin
Two-address bundle $29.99 · Same-day delivery