Students at East High School were among the roughly 9,000 people who, for a short time at least, were drinking city water contaminated with high levels of an industrial pollutant that can cause liver, kidney or lung damage.

Nobody would have known that by reading the Madison Water Utility's consumer confidence report data for that year.

The federal health standard for the chemical, carbon tetrachloride, is 5 parts per billion. In October 2000, the level in the city's well No. 3 tested at 8.3 parts per billion.

But the utility's annual drinking water quality report listed the maximum level found at only 2.9 parts per billion. Utility officials say it was a typo.

A three-month-long look at Madison's drinking water revealed dubious management practices that may lessen trust in both the utility and the safety of drinking water, an aging system that can allow more pollutants in, and above all, the utility's reluctance to be forthcoming about the water we're drinking.

When tap water at hundreds of city homes started running black - contaminated with the mineral manganese - residents began asking questions.

Here's what the Wisconsin State Journal found in a three-month look at Madison's water:

The Madison Water Utility has been closed-mouthed on a number of occasions about potential problems with our water. In 2003, for example, the utility failed to report a break-in at one of the city's water towers to the police or the state Department of Natural Resources. DNR officials said they didn't know about the break-in until the State Journal turned up the incident in its reporting.

Officials with the utility were reluctant to issue a boil order as extensive as was sought by the DNR after tests showed fecal bacteria in water samples from Madison's East Side. The order was eventually issued.

In 2003 and 2004 - years when Madison's current manganese problems first surfaced - the utility failed to keep adequate records of water quality complaints as required by the Public Service Commission.

The water system is aging - with more than 200 water main breaks a year, and each break is a chance for more pollutants to enter the water.

Madison's 24 public wells contain numerous contaminants, though few ever test above federal health standards.