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Wisconsin Waterworks Excellence Project
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Professor Manuel P. Teodoro of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently released the inaugural Wisconsin Waterworks Excellence Project Wisconsin Water Utility Report Cards for 570 water utilities regulated by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC), including Madison Water Utility (Utility).
The stated goal of these report cards is to provide the public with clear, accessible information and include A-F letter grades for multiple functional areas: water quality (health), finance, infrastructure & operations, and communications-with each grade based on multiple performance indicators.
The inaugural report cards were released on March 22, 2025, in honor of World Water Day. The novel scoring system in the report cards incorporate extensive data from the PSC, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and original data gathered over the last few years by Professor Teodoro and his research team. Professor Teodoro hopes to release these report cards biennially going forward.
According to these report cards, most of Wisconsin’s water utilities provide safe, healthy drinking water with 92% of the state’s water utilities earning A grades for water quality. However, more than a quarter of Wisconsin utilities scored in the D-F range in the finance category, while about 22% received marks in the D-F range in infrastructure & operations.
Please see corresponding memo and attachments for a summary of the Madison Water Utility's scoring and additional information.
Attachments: A. 2024 Wisconsin Waterworks Excellence Report--Madison Water Utility; B. Wisconsin State Journal Article, "Madison Gets High Marks," dated April 7, 2025