WGF Joins Nitrate Watch Program

WGF is now a partner of the Izaak Walton League’s Nitrate Watch program!

This people-powered community science program allows anyone to help gather data about nitrate in Wisconsin’s waters. Nitrate is the most common chemical contaminant creating health risks in Wisconsin’s private wells. Nitrate also harms the water quality and ecological health of our lakes, streams and rivers. Watch this video below to learn more about the Nitrate Watch program and how you can get involved.

Get Involved and Test Your Own Water

Anyone can sign up to receive a kit of 25 strips to test their own or their neighbors’ private wells, their city water supply, or any lake, stream or river they care about. These kits are completely free of charge. Once you run out of test strips, simply sign up for more!

>> Click here to fill out the form and get your free Nitrate Watch test kit of 25 water sample strips.

• Testing is easy and quick. View a short how-to video about testing your water sample here.
• List Wisconsin’s Green Fire as your organization when you sign up so we can summarize the data from all around the state.
• Visit https://iwla.org/nitrate-watch/ for additional information on water testing kits.

Snapshot of Nitrate Watch data collection sites in Wisconsin as of July 2025, courtesy of Nitrate Watch via the Clean Water Hub

As you can see from this map image of nitrate data collection sites, Wisconsin has some data but could use a lot more! Many of the Nitrate Watch sites in the Midwest are concentrated in Iowa. You can help us collect more Wisconsin data by signing up and testing water from places you care about. Those places could include:

• Your kitchen sink
• Your private well water
• A river, lake, stream or ditch in your neighborhood
• Other sources of water you care about

The Nitrate Watch program is a great opportunity to “do something” for the waters you care about. Community scientists (like you) can measure and document the effects of sustainable agricultural practices on local lakes and streams. Or, you might choose to track your community’s drinking water quality over time. If you’d like advice on how or where to collect your samples, please contact us.

To view an interactive map of data collected so far by Wisconsin’s Green Fire volunteers, click here. Then, once you become a participant, your submitted data will add to this map. That will allow us to better understand trends in nitrate in waters all around Wisconsin.

Visit WGF’s Nitrate Watch webpage to learn more here.

Want to learn more? Visit WGF’s Nitrate Watch page under the Our Work tab. We are sharing Wisconsin-specific educational resources about nitrate and giving opportunities for you to network with other community scientists! We will be continuing to add to this page and our Nitrate Watch program this fall and as the program grows over time.

View the factsheet below for more information about nitrate in drinking water. The current drinking water standard is 10 milligrams per liter (mg/L) or 10 parts per million (ppm). Note the serious health concerns for people like thyroid disease, birth defects, colon cancer, and blue baby syndrome (methemoglobinemia).

WGF volunteer experts Christine Mechenich and Paul LaLiberte are helping to lead this program alongside WGF staff. For questions about Nitrate Watch or how to participate, contact us! Thank you for helping us use community-science to monitor Wisconsin’s waters. Together, we can help protect our water quality through science!

>> Click here to fill out the form and get your free Nitrate Watch test kit of 25 water sample strips.

Nitrate in Drinking Water Fact Sheet from IWLA