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Milltown Waterworks

What EPA’s and Wisconsin’s records show in this utility’s water: nitrate, arsenic and other regulated chemicals; lead and copper; and violations since 2016, with the certification that handles each result.

Serves
915 people
Connections
338
Water source
Groundwater
Based in
Milltown, WI
County
Polk
Owner
Local government
Hardness
Very hard
The ZIP code it serves

54858

The short answer

1 result is above the health goal. The worst: Lead, above the health goal. No health-based violations on file since 2016.

What handles it

What was found

Lead and copper: EPA SDWIS monitoring periods ending 2008 to 2023.

Nitrate, chromium (total), fluoride and arsenic: Wisconsin’s own results, samples taken from Aug. 24, 2023 to Aug. 25, 2025, with EPA’s 2012 to 2019 file for earlier years.

Above the health goal1

Lead

Comes from pipes, often your own

Above the health goal

3.0ppb

90th percentile, 2023

In the latest period, 9 in 10 homes sampled were at or below 3.0 ppb, below EPA’s action level of 15 ppb. The action level drops to 10 ppb on Nov. 1, 2027. EPA’s health goal for lead is zero.

What handles it

Below EPA’s limits3

Nitrate

Comes from the source

Below EPA’s limits

3.5ppm

Highest sample; found in 2 of 2

2025 average: 3.4 ppm

The highest sample, in 2025, was 3.5 ppm, below EPA’s legal limit of 10 ppm. That is the only year on file, and its two samples averaged 3.4 ppm. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest sample of 4.2 ppm, in 2012.

What handles it

  • NSF/ANSI 58 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite Reduction”
  • NSF/ANSI 53 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite (30 ppm challenge)”

Chromium (total)

Comes from the source

Below EPA’s limits

2.4ppb

Highest yearly average, 2023

Averaged by year, the highest was 2.4 ppb, in 2023, below EPA’s legal limit of 100 ppb. That is the only year on file. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest yearly average of 1.9 ppb, in 2014.

What handles it

Fluoride

Forms or is added in treatment

Below EPA’s limits

0.055ppm

Highest yearly average, 2023

Averaged by year, the highest was 0.055 ppm, in 2023, below EPA’s legal limit of 4.0 ppm. Its highest single sample was 0.056 ppm. That is the only year on file.

What handles it

One compound tested and not foundBelow the reporting level in every sample. Not found is not the same as zero.
  • Arsenic

What handles it

A certification covers specific claims, not a whole standard. Look for these claims on the certifier’s listing, not the box. Wording varies a little: NSF writes “Lead Reduction,” WQA just “Lead.”

At the tap, or for the whole house?

Lead and copper usually come from pipes and fixtures inside or near your home. A whole-house system sits where water enters, so it cannot catch what your own plumbing adds after it. For those, the filter that counts is the one at the tap. How whole-house systems compare.

Filters with those claims on a certifier’s listing

Disclosure: TapBuff earns a commission if you buy through some links on this page. It does not change which standard or filter we name. As an Amazon Associate, TapBuff earns from qualifying purchases. How TapBuff makes money

Compare five-year costs

The best water filters for lead, ranked

Hardness

Very hard, 250 mg/L (14.6 grains per gallon), at its one sampling point, in 2017.

Hardness is calcium and magnesium. EPA sets no limit for it: it shows up as scale on fixtures and in water heaters, and as soap that won’t lather. USGS calls water above 60 mg/L moderately hard, above 120 hard and above 180 very hard.

Softeners compared at 14.6 grains per gallon, salt includedSoftener or salt-free conditioner?Wisconsin water hardness, utility by utility

Violations since 2016

No health-based violations on file with EPA since 2016.

What this report can’t tell you

  • Everything else. Nitrate, chromium (total), fluoride and arsenic results here are Wisconsin’s own from 2023 on, with EPA’s national file for 2012 to 2019. Milltown Waterworks’s own annual report, which it must send you every year, has the contaminants this page does not show.

  • Your own plumbing. Lead results are the 90th percentile across homes the utility samples. Your home’s service line, solder and fixtures decide yours. A certified lab test is the only way to know.

  • What it means for your health. This page reports what the records show and EPA’s limits and goals; it is not medical advice. If you are worried about a health effect, talk to a doctor or your local health department.

  • Anything after the latest data. SDWIS data is from 2026 Q3; UCMR 5 didn’t sample this utility; Wisconsin’s results run from Aug. 24, 2023 to Aug. 25, 2025.

Testing your own tap

Milltown Waterworks’s results are for the water it sends out. What your own service line, solder and fixtures add shows up only in a test of your tap, by a lab Wisconsin certifies.

The 3 labs Wisconsin certifies closest to the area Milltown Waterworks serves, in a straight line. Call first: certification is test by test, and not every lab takes samples from homeowners.

  • Polk County Health Department

    Balsam Lake, WI · about 6 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate

    (715) 485-8400

  • Quality Water Testing, Inc.

    Somerset, WI · about 28 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate

    (715) 247-4873

  • Commercial Testing Laboratory Inc.

    Colfax, WI · about 50 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics

    (715) 962-3121

Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene: Well water test kits ordered by phone and shipped free; you pay to mail the sample back, and the lab bills you after testing. Tests run from bacteria alone to a homeowner package covering bacteria, nitrate, fluoride, metals, hardness, volatile organic compounds and atrazine. Bacteria is $35, nitrate $35, lead $38, and the homeowner package $450, as of July 1, 2026. Public Environmental and Water Testing Prices, Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene.

All 156 certified labs for Wisconsin

Sources

PWSID WI6490339. Rebuilt from EPA data on Oct. 18, 2026.

Also in Polk County

All Wisconsin utilities

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