Water Equity in the U.S.
The Water & Health Advisory Council agrees with the United Nations that access to safe, accessible, and affordable drinking water is a basic human right. Our nation has taken great strides to ensure safe drinking water for all, but there is more work to be done to achieve water equity.
A study conducted by the US Water Alliance found that more than two million Americans live without running water and basic indoor plumbing, and many more without sanitation.
Water Equity Insights
US Water Alliance: Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States: A National Action Plan
While the US has already made great progress in providing clean drinking water and sanitation, many people still do not have this privilege. The US Water Alliance report outlines a plan of action to ensure equitable water access for all Americans and highlights what various communities have already done to ensure this for their residents.
AP News: When Destitute Small Towns Mean Dangerous Tap Water
While water systems in larger cities tend to gain more attention and attract more resources, water providers serving smaller cities in the U.S. tend to violate twice as many health standards than bigger cities. Smaller towns are usually subjected to lower-quality drinking water due to resource-deprived and unmaintained water providers. Focusing resources on the nation’s aging water infrastructure is essential to protecting drinking water and public health, especially in smaller and underserved communities that often are left unprotected by destitute and unmaintained water providers.
The Authority Podcast: Water Equity with Kathryn Sorensen
In Episode 8 of The Authority Podcast, council member Kathryn Sorensen discusses the concept of plumbing and the Ten Tenets of Water Equity, one of which states that water equity cannot occur without an adequately functioning community water system. “Water is the foundation of public health, economic opportunity, and quality of life in any community and water equity occurs when all communities have access to safe clean affordable drinking water,” said Kathryn Sorensen.
Water Equity Resources
Our country has achieved broad successes in the delivery of safe, clean water in support of public health. Here are some resources from trusted organizations that can be used to support science-based decision making regarding safe, reliable drinking water for all.
The US Water Alliance is dedicated to building a sustainable water future for all. As a member-supported, national nonprofit organization, the Alliance educates the nation about the true value of water and accelerates policies and programs that effectively manage water resources to build stronger communities and a stronger America.
The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government tasked with environmental protection matters.
The Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) is the professional Association serving state drinking water programs.
The Future of Drinking Water in America
Fifty years ago, President Gerald Ford signed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the principal law regulating tap water quality in the United States. The SDWA was an inflection point: for the first time, the nation’s water systems were subject to binding health-based standards, rooted in scientific research and jointly administered by federal and state authorities. Bolstered by amendments in 1986 and 1996, the SDWA propelled significant advances. Today, thanks to the SDWA, drinking water is safer, water utilities are more professional and accountable, and Americans enjoy some of the world’s best tap water.
Challenges remain, however. Millions of Americans still face significant risk from unreliable or contaminated drinking water. Microbial and chemical contaminants still threaten public health in parts of the country. Aging infrastructure and persistent failures erode public health and public trust. Our communities deserve better.
The Challenges
A REGULATORY TREADMILL
The SDWA’s framework drives a continuous search for and subsequent regulation of contaminants. Initial SDWA implementation focused on the most harmful contaminants, leading to marked improvements in health over its first three decades. However, a regulatory regime that prioritizes identifying and regulating new contaminants over eliminating known risks and maintaining health gains can only do so by imposing ever-greater costs for ever-smaller advances in public health. Vigilance is important, but advancing public health requires a focus on the most serious problems.
MISSING RISKS
Today America’s most pressing drinking water challenges include aging and failing infrastructure, unsafe premise plumbing, a lack of access, workforce shortages, cybersecurity, and a burgeoning bottled water industry that siphons billions of dollars from the nation’s least affluent. New, unknown challenges are sure to arise in the decades ahead. Existing policy frameworks have proven inadequate to address these and other emerging dangers.
UNDERINVESTMENT
Elected officials too often are unwilling to invest adequately in their facilities and organizations, prioritizing low rates at the expense of health and environmental quality. When facing the consequences of chronic underinvestment, many advocate for the federal taxpayer to rescue failing water systems. But federal funding is unreliable, vulnerable to manipulation by politicians, pits water against other national priorities, and creates perverse disincentives for locally led investment.
INJUSTICE
Drinking water safety, reliability, and affordability are not uniform across the United States. America’s fragmented water sector is unsustainable, with tens of thousands of utilities operating nearly 50,000 community water systems, plus 100,000 non-community systems. Most of these lack the technical, managerial, and financial capacity to operate effectively and affordably. Systems that serve rural, lower-income, and racial/ethnic minority communities are disproportionately likely to experience contaminated drinking water. Regulators have been too slow to enforce the SDWA and too tolerant of ongoing failures.
OPACITY
The American public poorly understands tap water quality, water system infrastructure, and the organizations that operate, regulate, and govern water. SDWA-mandated Consumer Confidence Reports fail to improve public knowledge and may even reduce public trust in high-quality water systems. This information vacuum invites fearmongering and exploitation.
These challenges demand a strategic shift in the decades ahead.
A vision for the next 50 years
To deliver on the promise of safe tap water for every American, we envision:
PRIORITIZING RISK
Regulatory regimes must center on the most serious threats to drinking water. Utilities must build and maintain resilient infrastructure that prevents contamination and take measures to protect source water. Policymakers must weigh regulation of novel contaminants against these priorities and emerging concerns. Rules that compel communities to invest limited resources must be guided by the best available science on risks and achieve the greatest benefits.
BUILDING CAPACITY
Great drinking water requires great organizations. Investments in human capital must accompany investments in infrastructure. Water utilities need sustainable funding through service rates and other local sources. Although federal funding can be a useful complement in some cases, we reject simplistic calls for the federal taxpayer to pay for America’s drinking water systems.
America’s drinking water systems must consolidate. We cannot deliver safe, reliable, resilient, and affordable water through tens of thousands of tiny, unsustainable organizations. Congress recognized this reality when it passed the SDWA in 1974. Water sector leaders repeated the call for consolidation on the SDWA’s 25th Anniversary in 1999. We take up this call with renewed urgency and specific targets: America should consolidate into fewer than 6,500 utilities—through physical and/or organizational mergers—with a minimum size of 20,000 customer connections.
RIGOROUS ENFORCEMENT
Regulators can no longer tolerate failure. Authorities must anticipate and prevent systems at risk of failure, and respond to serious or ongoing violations of the SDWA’s health protections with swift and effective enforcement. We must level the regulatory field so that SDWA protections and enforcement apply to all public, private, and nonprofit water systems. Commercial drinking water sources, including bottled water and vending machines, must meet the standards, protocols, and reporting requirements that apply to community water systems.
JUSTICE
Rulemaking, enforcement, investment, and pricing must foster safe, reliable, resilient, and affordable tap water for all. We must eliminate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in tap water access, quality, and reliability. As American society and economy evolve, drinking water regulation also must evolve to protect vulnerable populations.
TRANSPARENCY & TRUST
Utilities and regulators must lavishly share information about drinking water in clear and understandable terms. We must replace ineffective and antiquated Consumer Confidence Report rules with more effective, rigorously tested methods of communication.
Toward more perfect drinking water
The nation has taken great strides to ensure safe drinking water for all, but there is more work to be done. The challenges ahead are principally organizational, financial, and political; we can overcome those challenges with prudent, visionary leadership. With appreciation for past accomplishments and confidence in the promise of future achievements, we celebrate this 50th anniversary of the SDWA and dedicate ourselves to ensuring that its 100th anniversary will be a triumph.