How One Wisconsin City’s Water Supply Is Unlike Any Other In The State

In the world of water supplies for Wisconsin cities and towns, one municipality is unique from all the rest in the state.

In a news article I stumbled upon earlier this year, a really fascinating nugget about Superior, Wisconsin's water utility stood out.

In that story, it was noted that the water utility in Superior, Superior Water, Light, and Power (SWL&P), is Wisconsin's only private water utility.

Now, to be clear, I live across the bridge in Duluth, so while I've heard about SWL&P, I can't say I personally knew a ton about who owned or managed it until I started reading about it.

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In many cities and towns where there is a water utility, said utility is a public entity. In the case of Superior's SWL&P, it is a privately-owned utility that is a subsidiary of ALLETE that delivers not only water, but also electricity and natural gas to customers in Superior and surrounding areas.

The SWL&P website says the private utility has existed since 1889, serving about 10,000 water customers along with 15,000 electric customers, and 13,000 natural gas customers.

Besides being an interesting trivia tidbit about a Wisconsin town, the ownership of this utility has some interesting impacts on those who rely on the service and the service itself.

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The article I mentioned above, which was written in March of 2025, pointed to how SWL&P's status as privately-owned makes accessing government funding for things like replacing lead pipes difficult. Now, the good news on that front is the Wisconsin Legislature did pass a bill into law in the 2025 legislative session to help patch that path between federal funding and a utility like SWL&P.

Many Superior residents argue that they deal with some of the highest rates in Wisconsin, which is one of the reasons there have been efforts discussed for the city to take over the utility.

How common are privately-owned water utilities? In Wisconsin, Superior is the only one. Elsewhere across the country, wells and public water utilities stand as the source of a majority of drinking water for Americans.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office says more than 10% of the country's population gets its drinking water from privately-owned water utilities. Their report cites data from 2019 that says there are at least 14 publicly-traded companies that serve customers in 33 states.