Water supply and sanitation in the United States involves a number of issues including

water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is whe ...

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, th ...

, a backlog of investment, concerns about the affordability of water for the poorest, and a rapidly retiring workforce. Increased variability and intensity of rainfall as a result of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

is expected to produce both more severe droughts and flooding, with potentially serious consequences for water supply and for pollution from

combined sewer overflow A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dil ...

s. Droughts are likely to particularly affect the 66 percent of Americans whose communities depend on surface water. As for drinking water quality, there are concerns about disinfection by-products,

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

perchlorates A perchlorate is a chemical compound containing the perchlorate ion, . The majority of perchlorates are commercially produced salts. They are mainly used as oxidizers for pyrotechnic devices and to control static electricity in food packaging. Per ...

, PFAS and pharmaceutical substances, but generally drinking water quality in the U.S. is good. Cities, utilities, state governments and the federal government have addressed the above issues in various ways. To keep pace with demand from an increasing population, utilities traditionally have augmented supplies. However, faced with increasing costs and droughts,

water conservation Water conservation includes all the policies, strategies and activities to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, to protect the hydrosphere, and to meet the current and future human demand (thus avoiding water scarcity). Popula ...

is beginning to receive more attention and is being supported through the federal

WaterSense WaterSense is a program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), designed to encourage water efficiency in the United States through the use of a special label on consumer products.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wa ...

program. The reuse of treated wastewater for non-potable uses is also becoming increasingly common. Pollution through wastewater discharges, a major issue in the 1960s, has been brought largely under control. Most Americans are served by publicly owned water and sewer utilities.

Public water system Public water system is a regulatory term used in the United States and Canada, referring to certain utilities and organizations providing drinking water. United States The US Safe Drinking Water Act and derivative legislation define "public wate ...

s, which serve more than 25 customers or 15 service connections, are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state agencies under the

Safe Drinking Water Act The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the principal federal law in the United States intended to ensure safe drinking water for the public. Pursuant to the act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to set standards for drinking wa ...

(SDWA). Eleven percent of Americans receive water from private (so-called "investor-owned") utilities. In rural areas, cooperatives often provide drinking water. Finally, over 13 million households are served by their own wells. The accessibility of water not only depends on geographical location, but on the communities that belong to those regions. Of the millions who lack access to clean water, the majority are low-income minority individuals. Wastewater systems are also regulated by EPA and state governments under the

Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...

(CWA).

Public utilities commission In the United States, it is a governing body of a utility. In Canada, it is a utility, not a regulatory body. Canada In Canada, a public utilities commission (PUC) is a public utility owned and operated by a municipal or local government under ...

s or public service commissions regulate tariffs charged by private utilities. In some states they also regulate tariffs by public utilities. EPA also provides funding to utilities through state revolving funds. Water consumption in the United States is more than double that in Central Europe, with large variations among the states. In 2002 the average American family spent $474 on water and sewerage charges, which is about the same level as in Europe. The median household spent about 1.1 percent of its income on water and sewage. By 2018, 87% of the American population receives water from publicly owned water companies.

History

In the 19th century numerous American cities were afflicted with major outbreaks of disease, including

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...

in 1832, 1849 and 1866 and

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...

in 1848. The fast-growing cities did not have sewers and relied on contaminated wells within the city confines for drinking water supply. In the mid-19th century many cities built centralized water supply systems. However, initially these systems provided raw river water without any treatment. Only after

John Snow John Snow (15 March 1813 – 16 June 1858) was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the ...

established the link between contaminated water and disease in 1854 and after authorities became gradually convinced of that link, water treatment plants were added and public health improved. Sewers were built since the 1850s, initially based on the erroneous belief that bad air (

miasma theory The miasma theory (also called the miasmatic theory) is an obsolete medical theory that held that diseases—such as cholera, chlamydia, or the Black Death—were caused by a ''miasma'' (, Ancient Greek for 'pollution'), a noxious form of "ba ...

) caused cholera and typhoid. It took until the 1890s for the now universally accepted

germ theory of disease The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can lead to disease. These small organisms, too small to be seen without magnification, invade ...

to prevail. However, most

wastewater Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industrial ...

was still discharged without any treatment, because wastewater was not believed to be harmful to receiving waters due to the natural dilution and self-purifying capacity of rivers, lakes and the sea.

Wastewater treatment Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environm ...

only became widespread after the introduction of federal funding in 1948 and especially after an increase in environmental consciousness and the upscaling of financing in the 1970s. From 1948 to 1987 federal funding for

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation syste ...

was provided through grants to local governments.

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

amended the CWA in 1987 and changed the funding system for sewage treatment to loans through revolving funds. Congress added a state revolving fund for drinking water utilities to the SDWA in 1996.

Piped water supply until 1948

Croton Aqueduct - Harper's 1860 - Section of the high bridge over the Harlem River

In the 1840s and 1850s the largest cities in the U.S. built pipelines to supply drinking water from rivers or lakes. However, the drinking water was initially not treated, since the link between waterborne pathogens and diseases was not yet well known. In 1842 New York City was one of the first cities in the U.S. to tap water resources outside the city limits. It dammed the

Croton River The Croton River ( ) is a river in southern New York with three principal tributaries: the West Branch, Middle Branch, and East Branch. Their waters, all part of the New York City water supply system, join downstream from the Croton Falls R ...

in Westchester County, New York, and built an aqueduct from the reservoir to the city. Also in 1842, construction was completed on

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

's first water works, with water mains made of cedar and a water intake located about into

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. In 1848,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

began construction of a water transmission system. A tributary of the

Sudbury River The Sudbury River is a tributary of the Concord River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 Originati ...

was impounded creating Lake Cochituate, from where the

Cochituate Aqueduct The Cochituate Aqueduct was an aqueduct in Massachusetts that brought water to Boston from 1848 to 1951. History The aqueduct formed a key link in Boston's first major water supply system. Its genesis dates to 1845, when a Sudbury River tribu ...

transported water to the Brookline Reservoir that fed the city's distribution system. In 1853, Washington, D.C., followed suit by beginning the construction of the Washington Aqueduct to provide water from the Great Falls on the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

. In 1854, the British physician John Snow found that cholera was spread through contaminated water. As a result of his findings, several cities began to treat all water with

sand filter Sand filters are used as a step in the water treatment process of water purification. There are three main types; rapid (gravity) sand filters, upward flow sand filters and slow sand filters. All three methods are used extensively in the water i ...

s and

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...

before distributing it to the public. Before efforts to clean drinking water were implemented at the turn of the 20th century, mortality among 1- to 5-year-olds in the United States in some major river cities was nearly one in five. Clean water is estimated to have reduced about three-fourths of infant mortality, and two-thirds of child mortality. By 1900, sand filtration was widely used. In 1908, the first continuous application of chlorination to drinking U.S. water was in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. Cities also began to construct sewers in the late 19th century. As a result of water treatment and sanitation, the incidence of cholera and typhoid rapidly decreased. Slow sand filtration was initially the technology of choice for water treatment, later being gradually displaced by rapid sand filtration. As a result of the water purification efforts, mortality among black infants declined in particular, leading to a 13 percent reduction in the black-white infant mortality gap. In the arid American Southwest, the water demand of rapidly growing cities such as Los Angeles exceeded local water availability, requiring the construction of large pipelines to bring in water from far-away sources. The most spectacular example is the first

Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valle ...

built between 1905 and 1913 to supply water from the Owens Valley over a distance of 233 mi (375 km). Drinking water quality standards were first issued in 1914 by the

United States Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...

. However they were only enforceable for interstate transportation carriers (such as railroads) at specific points where water was transferred.

Sanitation until 1948

Construction of a Sewer Trench, Main Street, Keene, New Hampshire (4464568967) no caption

Most of the first sewer systems in the United States were built as

combined sewer A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dil ...

s (carrying both storm water and sewerage). They discharged into rivers, lakes and the sea without any treatment. The main reason for choosing combined sewers over separate systems (separating

sanitary sewer A sanitary sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings (but not stormwater) to a sewage treatment plant or disposal. Sanitary sewers are a type of gravity sewer and are part of an ...

s from storm water drains) was a belief that combined sewer systems were cheaper to build than separate systems. Also, there was no European precedent for successful separate sewer systems at the time. The first large-scale sewer systems in the United States were constructed in Chicago and

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in the late 1850s, followed by other major U.S. cities. Few

sewage treatment Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding en ...

facilities were constructed in the late 19th century to treat combined wastewater because of the associated difficulties. There were only 27 U.S. cities with wastewater treatment works by 1892, most of them "treating" wastewater through land application. Of these 27 cities, 26 had separate sanitary and storm water sewer systems, thus facilitating wastewater treatment, because there was no need for large capacities to accommodate wet weather flows. Furthermore, there was a belief that the diluted combined wastewater was not harmful to receiving waters, due to the natural dilution and self-purifying capacity of rivers, lakes and the sea. In the early 20th century a debate evolved between those who thought it was in the best interest of public health to construct wastewater treatment facilities and those who believed building them was unnecessary. Nevertheless, many cities began to opt for separate sewer systems, creating favorable conditions for adding wastewater treatment plants in the future. Where wastewater was being treated it was typically discharged into rivers or lakes. However, in 1932, the first

reclaimed water Water reclamation (also called wastewater reuse, water reuse or water recycling) is the process of converting municipal wastewater (sewage) or industrial wastewater into water that can be reused for a variety of purposes. Types of reuse include ...

facility in the U.S. was built in

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the developm ...

, San Francisco, for the reuse of treated wastewater in landscape irrigation. Sanitary sewers were not the only sanitation solution applied. They were particularly useful in high-density urban areas. However, in some newly built lower-density areas, decentralized septic systems were built. They were attractive because they reduced capital expenditures and had fewer operation and maintenance costs compared to wastewater treatment plants.

After 1948: Enter the federal government

US Wastewater Treatment Levels Before & After CWA

In the first half of the 20th century water supply and sanitation were a local government responsibility with regulation at the state level; the federal government played almost no role in the sector at that time. This changed with the enactment of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948, which provided for comprehensive planning, technical services, research, and financial assistance by the federal government to state and local governments for sanitary infrastructure. The Act was amended in 1965, establishing a uniform set of water quality standards and creating a Federal Water Pollution Control Administration authorized to set standards where states failed to do so. Comprehensive federal regulations for water supply and sanitation were introduced in the 1970s, in reaction to increased public awareness of environmental degradation nationwide. In 1970 EPA was established by the

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

administration, and authority for managing various environmental programs was transferred to the new agency. In 1972, Congress passed the

(CWA), requiring industrial plants and municipal sewage plants to improve their waste treatment practices in order to limit the effect of contaminants on freshwater sources. In 1974, the

was adopted for the regulation of

public water system Public water system is a regulatory term used in the United States and Canada, referring to certain utilities and organizations providing drinking water. United States The US Safe Drinking Water Act and derivative legislation define "public wate ...

s. It was motivated by a resurgence in concern about the safety of drinking water due to breakthroughs in chemistry that revealed organic chemicals in water that were tentatively linked with cancer. This law specified a number of contaminants that must be closely monitored and reported to residents should they exceed the maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) allowed. EPA was charged with creating standards for drinking water for all public systems, defined as those that served more than 25 customers or 15 service connections. The new law required federal and state governments to closely monitor local drinking water utilities for safety and compliance with federal standards.RandomHistory.com
Retrieved July 26, 2010. The CWA set the unprecedented goal of eliminating all water pollution by 1985 and authorized massive expenditures of $24.6 billion in research and construction grants for municipal sewage treatment. The funds initially provided an incentive to build centralized wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure for municipalities, instead of decentralized systems. However, the 1977 amendments to the CWA required communities to consider alternatives to the conventional centralized sewer systems, and financial assistance was made available for such alternatives. In the mid-1990s decentralized systems served approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population, and approximately 37 percent of new housing developments. The vast majority of municipal wastewater in the U.S. is treated to the national secondary treatment standard or better. There have been a few disagreements between EPA and some local governments about the appropriate level of treatment, with the former arguing for more stringent standards. For example, in the late 1980s, the city of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

and EPA were involved in a legal dispute over the requirement to treat sewage at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant to secondary treatment standards. The city prevailed, saying that it saved ratepayers an estimated $3 billion and that process had proved successful in maintaining a healthy ocean environment. The Point Loma plant uses an advanced primary process. The requirement to perform secondary treatment on wastewater before ocean discharge was waived by the EPA in 1995, "taking into account the city's unique circumstances". In 1987 Congress passed the

Water Quality Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...

, which replaced the construction grant program with a system of subsidized loans using the

Clean Water State Revolving Fund The Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) is a self-perpetuating loan assistance authority for water quality improvement projects in the United States. The fund is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies. The CWSRF, ...

(CWSRF).United States. Clean Water Act. Title VI: "State Water Pollution Control Revolving Funds." ''et seq.'' The intention at the time was to completely phase out federal funding after a few years. Funding peaked in 1991 and continued at high levels thereafter, despite the original intentions. New challenges arose, such as the need to address combined sewer overflows for which EPA issued a policy in 1994.EPA (1994-04-19)
"Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Policy."
''

Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on fede ...

'', 59 FR 18688. In 1996 Congress established the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, building on the success of the CWSRF, in order to finance investments to improve compliance with more stringent drinking water quality standards.United States
"Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996."
, . Approved 1996-08-06.

Technical and environmental overview

This section provides a brief overview of the water supply and sanitation infrastructure in the U.S., water sources of some of the main cities, and the main types of residential water use. Urban Water Cycle - EPA 2004

Infrastructure

The centralized drinking water supply infrastructure in the United States consists of dams and

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

s, well fields,

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure system ...

s, aqueducts for the transport of large quantities of water over long distances, water treatment plants, reservoirs in the

water distribution system A water distribution system is a part of water supply network with components that carry potable water from a centralized treatment plant or wells to consumers to satisfy residential, commercial, industrial and fire fighting requirements. Defin ...

(including

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towers often operate in conju ...

s), and 1.8 million miles of distribution lines. Depending on the location and quality of the water source, all or some of these elements may be present in a particular water supply system. In addition to this infrastructure for centralized network distribution, over 13 million households rely on their own water sources, usually wells. The centralized sanitation infrastructure in the U.S. consists of 1.2 million miles of sewers—including both

s and

s, sewage

s and publicly owned treatment works (POTW). EPA estimated that there were at least 16,583 POTWs operating in 2004, serving a population of 222.8 million. About 860 communities in the U.S. have combined sewer systems, serving about 40 million people. In addition, at least 17% of Americans are served by on-site sanitation systems such as

septic tank A septic tank is an underground chamber made of concrete, fiberglass, or plastic through which domestic wastewater ( sewage) flows for basic sewage treatment. Settling and anaerobic digestion processes reduce solids and organics, but the treatm ...

s. In the United States over 75 percent of the population is served by over 16,000 municipal sewage treatment plants. Most plants are required to meet national secondary treatment standards.

Water sources

About 66% of the U.S. population (195 million people) are served by

surface water Surface water is water located on top of land forming terrestrial (inland) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean. The vast majority of surface water is produced by pre ...

systems, and 34% (101 million) are served by

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

-supplied systems (as of 2009). Most groundwater systems are in small communities, and comprise 90% of the overall population of public water systems. For a surface water system to operate without filtration it has to fulfill certain criteria set by the EPA under its 2006 Surface Water Treatment Rule, including the implementation of a watershed control program. The water system of New York City has repeatedly fulfilled these criteria for most of the water processed through its facilities.

Cities supplied primarily by surface water without filtration

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, Denver, and

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

are among the large cities in the U.S. that do not need to treat most of their surface water sources beyond disinfection, because their water sources are located in the upper reaches of protected watersheds and thus are naturally very pure. Boston receives most of its water from the Quabbin and

Wachusett "Wachusett" (also spelled "Wachuset", "Watchusett", and "Watchuset") is a word derived from the Algonquian languages such as Nipmuc and Wompanoag, still spoken by the Native Americans of Massachusetts and is believed to approximate "near the mount ...

Reservoirs and the

Ware River The Ware River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 river in central Massachusetts. It has two forks, its West Branch, which begins in Hubbardston, Massa ...

in central and western Massachusetts. New York City's water supply is fed by three watershed systems. The two larger systems, Catskill and

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...

, do not have filtration. The Catskill watershed is in one of the largest protected wilderness areas in the United States. Water from the two systems has been treated with

ultraviolet germicidal irradiation Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is a disinfection method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet ( ultraviolet C or UV-C) light to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unab ...

since 2013. The

Croton system The Croton Aqueduct or Old Croton Aqueduct was a large and complex water distribution system constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. The great aqueducts, which were among the first in the United States, carried water by gravity from ...

, which supplies 10% of the city's water, has been filtered since 2015.

obtains 85% of its drinking water from high Sierra snowmelt through the

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Hetch Hetchy is a valley, a reservoir, and a water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. For thousands of years bef ...

in Yosemite National Park. However, to supplement the imported water supply, and to help maintain delivery of drinking water in the event of a major earthquake, drought or decline in the snowpack, San Francisco considers the use of alternative locally produced, sustainable water sources such as

for irrigation, local groundwater and

desalination Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in soil desalination, which is an issue for agriculture. Salt ...

during drought periods, all as part of its Water Supply Diversification Program. The largest source of water supply for Portland, Oregon, is the Bull Run Watershed.

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

receives its water almost entirely from mountain snowmelt in a number of highly protected watersheds in more than 9 counties. Its water is stored in 14 reservoirs, the largest of which is the

Dillon Reservoir Dillon Reservoir, sometimes referred to as Lake Dillon, is a large fresh water reservoir located in Summit County, Colorado, United States, south of I-70 and bordered by the towns of Frisco, Silverthorne, and Dillon. It is a reservoir for the ...

on the Blue River in the Colorado River. Water is diverted from there through the Harold D. Roberts Tunnel under the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...

into the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West. It ...

Basin.

Cities supplied primarily by surface water with water treatment

Cities that rely on more or less polluted surface water from the lower reaches of rivers have to rely on extensive and costly

water purification Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water. The goal is to produce water that is fit for specific purposes. Most water is purified and disinfected for hu ...

plants. The

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area i ...

obtains 90% of its water from

Lake Mead Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. L ...

on the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

, which has been affected by drought. To supply a portion of the future water supply, Las Vegas plans to buy water rights in the Snake Valley in White Pine County, north of the city straddling the Utah border and other areas, pumping it to Las Vegas through a US$2 billion pipeline. Phoenix draws about half of its drinking water from the Salt River– Verde River watershed, and about 40% from the Colorado River further downstream at

Lake Havasu Lake Havasu () is a large reservoir formed by Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between San Bernardino County, California and Mohave County, Arizona, Arizona. Lake Havasu City sits on the Arizona (eastern) side of the lake with its ...

through the

Central Arizona Project The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a 336 mi (541 km) diversion canal in Arizona in the southern United States. The aqueduct diverts water from the Colorado River to the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge south portion of Lake Havasu ne ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

obtains about half of its drinking water from the Owens River and

Mono Lake Mono Lake ( ) is a saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake which make its water a ...

through the

, with additional supplies from Lake Havasu through the Colorado River Aqueduct.

imports nearly 90 percent of its water from other areas, specifically northern California and the Colorado River. Philadelphia skyline August 2007

The cities on the Mississippi River are supplied by water from that river except for Memphis. The metropolitan area of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

receives 70% of its water from the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatt ...

and another 28% from the Etowah,

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

, Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers.

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

is supplied by water from

and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

receives its water from the Detroit River.

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

receives 60% of its water from the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before ...

and 40% from the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It f ...

. Washington, D.C. receives its water from the

through the Washington Aqueduct.

Cities supplied primarily by groundwater

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and its metropolitan area obtain drinking water primarily from the

Biscayne Aquifer The Biscayne Aquifer, named after Biscayne Bay, is a surficial aquifer. It is a shallow layer of highly permeable limestone under a portion of South Florida. The area it underlies includes Broward County, Miami-Dade County, Monroe County, and ...

. Given increasing water demand,

Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...

is considering the use of

to help preserve the Biscayne Aquifer. Memphis receives its water from

artesian aquifer An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. An artesian aquifer has trapped water, surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water contained within t ...

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

draws the bulk of its water from the

Edwards Aquifer The Edwards Aquifer is one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world. Located on the eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas, it is the source of drinking water for two million people, and is the primary water s ...

; it did not use any surface water until 2006.

Cities supplied by a mix of groundwater and surface water

Seventy-one percent of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

's supply flows from the Trinity River into

Lake Livingston Lake Livingston is a reservoir located in the East Texas Piney Woods. Lake Livingston was built and is owned and operated by the Trinity River Authority (TRA) of Texas under contract with the City of Houston for water-supply purposes. The lake is ...

, and from the San Jacinto River into

Lake Conroe Lake Conroe is a lake in Montgomery County, Texas, United States. Even though it is named Lake Conroe, only a small portion of the lake is in Conroe, Texas. Most of the lake is in unincorporated Montgomery County. The lake lies on the West For ...

and Lake Houston. Deep underground wells drilled into the Evangeline and Chicot aquifers provide the other 29 percent of the city's water supply.

Rainwater harvesting

In the United States, until 2009 in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, water rights laws almost completely restricted

rainwater harvesting Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the collection and storage of rain, rather than allowing it to run off. Rainwater is collected from a roof-like surface and redirected to a tank, cistern, deep pit (well, shaft, or borehole), aquifer, or a reservoir w ...

; a property owner who captured rainwater was deemed to be stealing it from those who have the rights to take water from the watershed. Now, residential good owners who meet certain criteria may obtain a permit to install a rooftop precipitation collection system (SB 09-080). Up to 10 large scale pilot studies may also be permitted (HB 09-1129). The main factor in persuading the

Colorado Legislature The Colorado General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Colorado. It is a bicameral legislature that was created by the 1876 state constitution. Its statutes are codified in the ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' (C.R.S.). The sess ...

to change the law was a 2007 study that found that in an average year, 97% of the precipitation that fell in Douglas County, in the southern suburbs of

, never reached a stream—it was used by plants or evaporated on the ground. Rainwater catchment is mandatory for new dwellings in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label= Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The name “S ...

. Texas offers a sales tax exemption on the purchase of rainwater harvesting equipment. Both Texas and Ohio allow the practice even for potable purposes. Oklahoma passed the Water for 2060 Act in 2012, to promote pilot projects for rainwater and

graywater Greywater (or grey water, sullage, also spelled gray water in the United States) refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater from ...

use among other water-saving techniques.

Water use

Domestic water use (also called home or residential water use) in the United States was estimated by the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

at per day in 2005,. and per day in 2010 (7 percent lower).. The bulk of domestic water is provided through public networks. 13% or of water is self-supplied. The average domestic water use per person in the U.S. was per day in 2005, and per day in 2010. This is about 2.2 times as high as in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

(150 Liter) and 2.6 times as high as in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

(126 Liter). One of the reasons for the high domestic water use in the U.S. is the high share of outdoor water use. For example, the arid West has some of the highest per capita domestic water use, largely because of landscape irrigation. Per capita domestic water use varied from per day in Maine to per day in Arizona and per day in Utah. According to a 1999 study, on average all over the U.S. 58% of domestic water use is outdoors for gardening, swimming pools etc. and 42% is used indoors. The study covered 1,188 households in 14 cities over 3 years. A 2016 update of the 1999 study measured the average quantities and percent shares of seven indoor end uses of water: * 24%

toilet A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human urine and feces, and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popu ...

s * 3% baths * 20%

shower A shower is a place in which a person bathes under a spray of typically warm or hot water. Indoors, there is a drain in the floor. Most showers have temperature, spray pressure and adjustable showerhead nozzle. The simplest showers have a ...

s * 17% Clothes washers * 1%

Dishwasher A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies heavily on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, ty ...

s * 19% Faucets * 4% Other domestic uses. Only a very small share of public water supply is used for drinking. According to one 2002 survey of 1,000 households, an estimated 56% of Americans drank water straight from the tap and an additional 37% drank tap water after filtering it. 74% of Americans said they bought

bottled water Bottled water is drinking water (e.g., well water, distilled water, mineral water, or spring water) packaged in plastic or glass water bottles. Bottled water may be carbonated or not. Sizes range from small single serving bottles to lar ...

. According to a non-representative survey conducted among 216 parents (173 Latinos and 43 non-Latinos), 63 (29%) never drank tap water. The share is much higher among Latinos (34%) than among non-Latinos (12%). The study concluded that many Latino families avoid drinking tap water because they fear it causes illness, resulting in greater cost for the purchase of bottled and filtered water. This notion is also repeated among Asians.

Institutional overview

Service providers

EPA defines a

(PWS) as one that provides water for human consumption through pipes or other constructed conveyances to at least 15 service connections or serves an average of at least 25 people for at least 60 days a year. The agency has defined three types of PWS: # Community Water System (CWS): a PWS that supplies water to the same population year-round. # Non-Transient Non-Community Water System (NTNCWS): a PWS that regularly supplies water to at least 25 of the same people at least six months per year, but not year-round. Some examples are schools, factories, office buildings, and hospitals which have their own water systems. # Transient Non-Community Water System (TNCWS): a PWS that provides water in a place such as a gas station or campground where people do not remain for long periods of time. In 2007, there were about 155,000 PWSs in the United States, of which 52,000 CWSs. PWSs are either publicly owned, cooperatives or privately owned, serving a total of about 242 million people in 2000. EPA estimates the number of beneficiaries of community water systems at 288 million in 2007 The United States Geological Survey estimates that "About 242 million people depended on water from public suppliers" in 2000. Four thousand systems provide water in localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, and the remaining 50,000 systems provide water in localities with less than 10,000 inhabitants. In 2000, 15% of Americans (43.5 million people) relied on their own water source, usually a well, for drinking water. Utilities in charge of public water supply and sanitation systems can be owned, financed, operated and maintained by a public entity, a private company or both can share responsibilities through a public-private partnership. Utilities can either be in charge of only water supply and/or sanitation, or they can also be in charge of providing other services, in particular electricity and gas. In the latter case they are called multi-utilities. Bulk water suppliers are entities that manage large aqueducts and sell either treated or untreated water to various users, including utilities. Public service providers. Eighty-nine percent of Americans served by a public water system are served by a public or cooperative entity. Usually public systems are managed by

utilities A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...

that are owned by a city or county, but have a separate legal personality, management and finances. Examples are the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, the

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021-2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of water per day to more ...

and

Denver Water Denver Water serves 1.4 million people in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, and a portion of its surrounding suburbs. Established in 1918, the utility is a public agency funded by water rates and new tap fees, not taxes. It is Colorado's ...

. In some cases public utilities span several jurisdictions. An example is the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission that spans two counties in Maryland.

Utility cooperative A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications to its members. Profits are either reinvested for infrastructure or distributed to members ...

s are a major provider of water services, especially in small towns and rural areas Private utilities. About half of American drinking water utilities, or about 26,700, are privately owned, providing water to 11% of Americans served by public water systems. Most of the private utilities are small, but a few are large and are traded on the stock exchange. The largest private water company in the U.S. is American Water, which serves 15 million customers in 1,600 communities in the U.S. and Canada. It is followed by United Water, which serves 7 million customers and is owned by the French firm Suez Environnement. Overall, about 33.5 million Americans (11% of the population) get water from a privately owned drinking water utility., based on and In addition, 20% of all wastewater utilities in the U.S. are privately owned, many of them relatively small. About 3% of Americans get wastewater service from private wastewater utilities. In addition, more than 1,300 government entities (typically municipalities) contract with private companies to provide water and/or wastewater services. Multi-utilities. Some utilities in the U.S. provide only water and/or sewer services, while others are multi-utilities that also provide power and gas services. Examples of utilities that provide only water and sewer services are the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, Dallas Water Utilities, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection,

Seattle Public Utilities Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is a public utility agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, which provides water, sewer, drainage and garbage services for 1.3 million people in King County, Washington. The agency was established in 1997, ...

and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. Other utilities, such as the

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a public agency of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and electric power services to the city and an additional 1.9 million customers within three San Fran ...

, provide power in addition to water and sewer services. Other multi-utilities provide power and water services, but no sewer services, such as the

and the Orlando Utilities Commission. There are also some utilities that provide only sewer services, such as the

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), originally known as the Sanitary District of Chicago, is a special-purpose district chartered to operate in Cook County, Illinois since 1889. Although its name may imply other ...

or the sewer utility in the city of Santa Clara. Arizona cap canal

Bulk water suppliers. There are also a few large bulk water suppliers in the arid Southwest of the United States, which sell water to utilities. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) sells treated water from the Colorado River and Northern California to its member utilities in Southern California through the

California Aqueduct The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after Cali ...

. Twenty-six cities and water districts serving 18 million people are members of MWD. The Central Arizona Water Conservation district supplies water from the Colorado River to 80 municipal, industrial, agricultural and Indian customers in Central and Southern Arizona through the

Central Arizona Project Aqueduct The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a 336 mi (541 km) diversion canal in Arizona in the southern United States. The aqueduct diverts water from the Colorado River to the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge south portion of Lake Havasu n ...

(CAP).

Regulators

The economic regulation of water and sanitation service providers in the U.S. (in particular in relation to the setting of user water rates) is usually the responsibility of regulators such as Public Utility Commissions at the state level, which are organized in the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. (see

economic regulator A regulatory agency (regulatory body, regulator) or independent agency (independent regulatory agency) is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous dominion over some area of human activity in a licensing and regula ...

). However, while all investor-owned utilities are subject to tariff regulation, only few public utilities are subjected to the same regulation. In fact, only 12 states have laws restricting pricing practices by public water and sanitation utilities. The environmental and drinking water quality regulation is the responsibility of state departments of health or environment and the EPA. The

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.United States. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. , , ''et seq., ...

(RCRA), protects groundwater by regulating the disposal of solid waste and

hazardous waste Hazardous waste is waste that has substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. Hazardous waste is a type of dangerous goods. They usually have one or more of the following hazardous traits: ignitability, reactivity, cor ...

.United States. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. , ''et seq.,'' October 21, 1976. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as "Superfund," requires remediation of abandoned hazardous waste sites.

Wastewater treatment

The

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...

(EPA) and state environmental agencies set wastewater standards under the

. Point sources must obtain surface water discharge permits through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Point sources include industrial facilities, municipal governments (

plants and

storm sewer A storm drain, storm sewer ( United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer ( United Kingdom), or stormwater drain ( Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and ground water from impervious su ...

systems), other government facilities such as

military bases A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...

, and some

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

facilities, such as animal

feedlot A feedlot or feed yard is a type of animal feeding operation (AFO) which is used in intensive animal farming, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called c ...

s. EPA sets basic national wastewater standards: The "Secondary Treatment Regulation" applies to municipal

plants, and the " Effluent guidelines" which are regulations for categories of industrial facilities. These standards are incorporated into the permits, which may include additional treatment requirements for individual plants developed on a case-by-case basis. NPDES permits must be renewed every five years. EPA has authorized 47 state agencies to issue and enforce NPDES permits. EPA regional offices issue permits for the rest of the country. Wastewater discharges to

are regulated by the Underground Injection Control Program (UIC) under the

. UIC permits are issued by 34 state agencies and EPA regional offices. Financial assistance for improvements to sewage treatment facilities is available to state and local governments through the

, a low interest loan program.

Other stakeholders

There are a number of

professional associations A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that profession, and th ...

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partic ...

s and other

non-governmental organizations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

(NGOs) that are actively engaged in water supply and sanitation. Professional associations include the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

focused on advocacy for state revolving fund and water resource development legislation,

American Water Works Association American Water Works Association (AWWA) is an international non-profit, scientific and educational association founded to improve water quality and supply. Established in 1881, it is a lobbying organization representing a membership (as of 2012) ...

(AWWA) oriented mainly towards drinking water professionals and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) geared mainly at wastewater professionals. The geographical scope of both is greater than the U.S.: AWWA has members in 100 countries, with a focus on the U.S. and Canada, and WEF has member associations in 30 countries. There are a number of trade associations in the sector, including: * The National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), founded in 1895, which represents the interests of small and large private water and wastewater utilities; * The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), founded in 1970, which represents the interests of wastewater utilities; * The National Rural Water Association (NRWA), founded in 1976, which represents small water and wastewater utilities; * The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), founded in 1981, which represents the interests of large publicly owned drinking water utilities. * The Water Reuse Association, founded in 2000, which promotes water reclamation, recycling, reuse and desalination. * The Water Quality Association, founded in 1974, which represents manufacturers and dealers of equipment for water treatment. In addition to

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, whic ...

, some of these trade associations also provide public education, as well as training and technical assistance to their members. An example of an NGO active in water supply and sanitation is

Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization group with an office also in Los Angeles, California, which focuses on corporate and government accountability relating to food, water, and corporate overreach. Resulting ...

, a

consumer rights Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

group created in 2005 which focuses on corporate and government accountability relating to food, water, and fishing. Another example is the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE), which was created in 2007 with seed funding from the EPA to "advocate for water efficiency research, evaluation, and education" at the national level. Its Board members "represent water utilities, environmental organizations, plumbing and appliance associations, irrigation manufacturers, the academic community, government, and others."

Issues

Among the main issues facing water users and the water industry in the U.S. in 2009 are water scarcity and

adaptation to climate change Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to current or expected effects of climate change.IPCC, 2022Annex II: Glossary öller, V., R. van Diemen, J.B.R. Matthews, C. Méndez, S. Semenov, J.S. Fuglestvedt, A. Reisinger (eds.) InClimat ...

; concerns about combined sewer overflows and drinking water quality; as well as concerns about a gap between investment needs and actual investments. Other issues are concerns about a swiftly retiring workforce, the affordability of water bills for the poor during a recession, and water fluoridation, which is opposed by some mainly on ethical and safety grounds.

Water scarcity and climate change

With water use in the United States increasing every year, many regions are starting to feel the pressure. At least 36 states are anticipating local, regional, or statewide water shortages by 2013, even under non-drought conditions. According to the

National Academies A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the humani ...

, climate change affects water supply in the U.S. in the following ways: * Rising water demands. Hotter summers mean thirstier people and plants. In addition, more evaporation from reservoirs and irrigated farmland will lead to faster depletion of water supplies. * Increased

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. Scientific evidence suggests that rising temperatures in the southwestern United States will reduce river flows and contribute to an increased severity, frequency, and duration of droughts. * Seasonal supply reductions. Many utilities depend on winter snowpack to store water and then gradually release it through snowmelt during spring and summer. Warmer temperatures will accelerate snowmelt, causing the bulk of the runoff to occur earlier and potentially increasing water storage needs in these areas. In some parts of the country water supplies are dangerously low due to drought and depletion of the aquifers, particularly in the West and the South East region of the U.S. Many of the dry, desert areas in the U.S. have this problem. According to AZCentral, "Arizona's groundwater levels are plummeting in many areas... The water levels in more than 2,000 wells have dropped more than 100 feet since they were first drilled." That sample size is approximately a fourth of Arizona's drinking-water wells.

Water security

Water security Water security is the focused goal of water policy and water management. A society with a high level of water security makes the most of water's benefits for humans and ecosystems and limits the risk of destructive impacts associated with water. T ...

is projected to be a problem in the future since future population growth will most likely occur in areas that are currently water stressed. Ensuring that the United States remains water secure will require policies that will ensure fair distribution of existing water sources, protecting water sources from becoming depleted, maintaining good wastewater disposal, and maintaining existing water infrastructure. Currently there are no national limits for US

withdrawal. If limits are imposed, the people most impacted will be the largest water withdrawers from a water source. In 2005, 31% of US water use was for irrigation, 49% was

thermoelectric The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa via a thermocouple. A thermoelectric device creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Conversely, wh ...

power, public supply 11%, industrial was 4%, aquaculture 2%, mining 1%, domestic 1%, and livestock less than 1%.

Pollution

An important turning point in managing drinking water contamination occurred after passage of the 1974 SDWA, which required the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

(NAS) to study the issue. The NAS found that there really was not a lot of information available on drinking water quality. Perhaps the most important part of the study, according to senior EPA officials responsible for implementing the 1974 law, was that it described some methodologies for doing risk assessments for chemicals that were suspected carcinogens. Sewer overflow RI EPA

According to the 2015 US census, one-fifth of all households are not connected to a community sewer system. Furthermore, many households have wastewater disposal systems that have inadequate treatment, such as sewage systems directly piped to nearby bodies of water and septic systems leading to fecal contamination. For example, in Barry-Easton District, Michigan 10% of the state's 1.3 million on-site wastewater treatment systems are malfunctioning, causing sewage to be running into the lakes and streams. This pollution of water is contributed to several health concerns in the US, especially for minorities and low-income individuals. In Lowes County, Alabama, hookworm is affecting people today due to unsanitary waste disposal. 73% of residents reported to have sewage running into their homes and 34% of residents surveyed tested positive for hookworm. These contaminated bodies of water also directly affect drinking water supplies, habitats and recreational sites, creating more issues for the environment. Overall, the cost to replace failed sewer systems and remove fecal waste from the water is typically higher than placing alternative infrastructure and maintaining adequate functioning systems.

Sewer overflows

Combined sewer overflow A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dil ...

s (CSO) and

overflows affect the quality of water resources in many parts of the U.S. About 860 communities have

systems, serving about 40 million people, mostly in the Northeast and the Great Lakes Region. CSO discharges during heavy storms can cause serious water pollution. A 2004 EPA report to Congress estimated that there are 9,348 CSO outflows in the U.S., discharging about of untreated wastewater and storm water to the environment. EPA estimates that between 23,000 and 75,000 sanitary sewer overflows occur each year, resulting in releases of between 3 and of untreated wastewater. The increased frequency and intensity of rainfall as a result of climate change will result in additional water pollution from wastewater treatment, storage, and conveyance systems." For the most part,

wastewater treatment Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environm ...

plants and CSO control programs have been designed on the basis of the historic hydrologic record, taking no account of prospective changes in flow conditions due to climate change.

Drinking water quality

In 2015, 9% of 500-person-or-larger community water systems monitored by the EPA, covering approximately 21 million people, violated at least one health standard. Between 1984 and 2018, between 4 and 28% of the American population received contaminated water in any given year. There are several aspects of drinking water quality that are of some concern in the United States, including ''

Cryptosporidium ''Cryptosporidium'', sometimes informally called crypto, is a genus of apicomplexan parasitic alveolates that can cause a respiratory and gastrointestinal illness (cryptosporidiosis) that primarily involves watery diarrhea (intestinal crypt ...

,'' disinfection by-products,

per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are synthetic organofluorine chemical compounds that have multiple fluorine atoms attached to an alkyl chain. An early definition, from 2011, required that they contain at least one perfluoroalkyl ...

(PFAS) and pharmaceutical substances. While lead in drinking water continues to persist as a public health problem in some communities, the source of the lead is generally from the

lead service line A lead service line (LSL, also known as lead service pipe, and lead connection pipe) is a pipe made of lead which is used in potable water distribution to connect a water main to a user's premises. Lead exposure is a public health hazard as it ca ...

s, rather than the water delivered by the utility. EPA's Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) does not set an MCL, but requires a utility to take action when the lead level at a customer location reaches 0.015 mg/L. A typical utility action is to adjust the chemistry of the drinking water with anti-corrosive additives, but replacement of

s (pipes that connect the water main to the home) is also an option. Most communities have avoided lead service line replacement due to the high cost. Congress passed the ''Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act'' tightening the definition of "lead free" plumbing, in 2011. EPA published a final rule implementing the law on September 1, 2020. In response to the Flint, Michigan water crisis, EPA published a revised LCR on January 15, 2021 addressing testing, pipe replacement and related issues. The rule mandates additional requirements for sampling tap water, corrosion control, public outreach and testing water in schools. The rule continues the requirement for replacement of lead service lines when the "action level" for lead is exceeded, but requires that a utility replace at least 3 percent of its lines annually, compared to 7 percent under the prior regulation. EPA's Consumer Confidence Rule of 1998 requires most public water suppliers to provide consumer confidence reports, also known as annual water quality reports, to their customers. Each year by July 1 anyone connected to a public water system should receive in the mail an annual water quality report that tells where water in a specific locality comes from and what's in it. Consumers can find out about these local reports on a map provided by EPA. 29% of Americans are reading their water quality reports. A 2003 survey found that customers were generally satisfied with the information they are receiving from their water companies and their local or state environmental offices. EPA published a proposed rule for perchlorate on June 26, 2019, with a proposed MCL of 0.056 mg/L for public water systems. On June 18, 2020 EPA announced that it was withdrawing its 2019 proposal, stating that it had taken "proactive steps" with state and local governments to address perchlorate contamination. In September 2020 the

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...

filed suit against EPA for its failure to regulate perchlorate, and stated that 26 million people may be affected by perchlorate in their drinking water. In March 2021 EPA announced that it will develop national drinking water standards for

perfluorooctanoic acid Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA; conjugate base perfluorooctanoate; also known colloquially as C8, for its 8 carbon chain structure) is a perfluorinated carboxylic acid produced and used worldwide as an industrial surfactant in chemical processes a ...

(PFOA) and

perfluorooctanesulfonic acid Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) (conjugate base perfluorooctanesulfonate) is a chemical compound having an eight-carbon fluorocarbon chain and a sulfonic acid functional group and thus a perfluorosulfonic acid. It is an anthropogenic (man-ma ...

(PFOS) in public water systems.

Groundwater pollution

In November 2006, EPA published its ''Ground Water Rule'', due to concerns that

s supplied by ground water would be vulnerable to contamination from harmful microorganisms, including fecal matter. The objective of the regulation, promulgated under the authority of the

, is to keep microbial pathogens out of public water sources. Congress recognized that injection wells were a potential threat to groundwater quality when they passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974. This instructed the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...

(EPA) to create a national program that would prevent underground injection activities that would endanger underground drinking sources. The EPA must regulate underground injection of fluids and wastes through wells that discharge or may release such material into or above an underground reservoir of drinkable water. The EPA has promoted several Underground Injection Control (UCI) regulations in order to protect underground reservoirs of drinkable water from being contaminated.

Investment gap

In its Infrastructure Report Card the

(ASCE) gave both the U.S. drinking water and wastewater infrastructure a grade of D− in 2005, down from D in 2001. According to the report, "the nation's drinking water system faces a staggering public investment need to replace aging facilities, comply with safe drinking water regulations and meet future needs." Investment needs are about $19 billion/year for sanitation and $14 billion/year for drinking water, totaling $33 billion/year. State and local governments invested $35.1 billion in water supply and sanitation in 2008, including 16.3 billion for drinking water supply and 18.8 billion for sanitation. In 2013 the ASCE rating remained at the "D" level, and a 2013 paper from Stanford University's Center for Reinventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt) describes why "water infrastructure is systemically resistant to innovation": The Stanford paper notes that innovations occur when utilities see opportunities for "short-term benefits and immediate savings," when there are water shortages, and in

quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...

situations, like

's "

green infrastructure Green infrastructure or blue-green infrastructure refers to a network that provides the “ingredients” for solving urban and climatic challenges by building with nature.Hiltrud Pötz & Pierre Bleuze (2011). Urban green-blue grids for sustainab ...

initiative designed to reduce combined sewer overflow." Concerning drinking water supply, EPA estimated in 2003 that $276.8 billion would have to be invested between 2003 and 2023. Concerning sanitation, EPA estimated in 2007 that investment of $202.5 billion is needed over the next 20 years to control wastewater pollution. This includes $134 billion for wastewater treatment and collection, $54.8 billion for resolving unsatisfactory

s and $9 billion for stormwater management. The EPA needs surveys do not capture all investment needs, in particular concerning capital replacement.

Access

In the U.S, in 2020, about 8.9 million people (about 2.68% of the population at that time) still lacked access to a household "safely managed" water sources. Regarding

, in 2020, around 5.7 million (about 1.74% of the population at that time) people did not have access to a household "safely managed sanitation" system. More than 99% of the U.S. population has access to "complete plumbing facilities" which is defined as having hot and cold piped water, a bathtub or shower, and a flush toilet. However, more than 1.6 million people in the United States, in 630,000 households, still lacked basic plumbing facilities as of 2014. This includes access to a toilet, shower, or running water. Of the millions who lack access to clean water, the majority are low-income individuals who are people of color, belong to tribal communities, and/or are immigrants. These groups often live in rural areas which are more susceptible to water quality violations than urban areas. Many of these violations are due to poor-quality sources of water and the lack of resources to maintain the current water infrastructure regulations. These violations are heightened in low-income minority communities because these communities were often disregarded when it came to drafting regulations and creating new infrastructure. A 2017 study utilized data from the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) and discovered that a significant amount of water quality violations were associated with higher Hispanic and Black populations. In addition, low income people of color experienced more violations than low income White, non-Hispanic communities. In results from the

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is a demographics survey program conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census, such as ancestry, citizenship, educati ...

(ACS), race was established as the biggest factor in determining people's access to clean water. In the United States, 0.3 percent of White households lack complete plumbing. When looking at this same variable under different ethnic groups, 0.5 percent of African-American and Latino households and 5.8 percent of Native-American households lack complete plumbing. The ACS highlights the disparities in access to clean water that come alongside different racial and ethnic groups. These disparities in access to clean water are most pronounced when viewing certain minority groups that are also poor. The previous 2017 SDWIS study examined the number of violations reported when looking at different ethnic groups and their level of poverty. When looking at communities where 10% were below the poverty line, an increase from 0% to 80% of the population being Hispanic resulted in a change in the number of violations reported from 0.10 to 0.11. However, when looking at communities where 40% were below the poverty line, the same increase in the Hispanic population resulted in a change from 0.09 to 0.17. This study concluded that these ethnic disparities in access to clean water are prominent when incorporating low-income communities as well.

Historical causes of limited access to water

As a direct result of structural racism as well as

environmental racism Environmental racism or ecological apartheid is a form of institutional racism leading to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionally placed in communities of colour. Internationally, it is also associated with ...

, there has been this systemic failure to provide equal resources and services to all Americans regardless of their race or income. Individuals do not choose to have incomplete plumbing, but rather, it is a result of government policy that intentionally excluded those communities. In the 1930s, the U.S government relocated many American Indians to rural and isolated areas. These areas lacked the resources to not only create proper water infrastructure but also employ proper sanitation techniques. In addition to this mistreatment, the passing of new laws and regulations made it difficult for Native Americans to voice their concerns which only furthered their decay regarding their access to clean water. In 1954, the city of

Zanesville, Ohio Zanesville is a city in and the county seat of Muskingum County, Ohio, United States. It is located east of Columbus and had a population of 24,765 as of the 2020 census, down from 25,487 as of the 2010 census. Historically the state capita ...

discriminated against African American residents by limiting their access to water lines. When constructing these water lines, the city specifically ignored entire neighborhoods that were home to African-Americans. This incident highlights the discrimination that many disadvantaged communities faced that prevented their access to clean water. Between 1950 and 2000, several water infrastructure initiatives were debuted in California, but they were exclusive in the communities that they protected. During this time period, California took measures to prevent the integration of the Hispanic/Latino community which resulted in the lack of consideration when crafting certain infrastructure. These communities were not accounted for and had to resort to decentralized water sources and poor sanitation techniques. The lack of inclusion of certain groups in California in water policy contributed to the overall deterioration of these regions. When examining specific aspects of water policy, the majority tends to focus on protecting drinking water from over extraction by businesses for commercial purposes rather than outlining local requirements for drinking water. While the rest of the United States began to benefit from closer accessibility to water, these specific communities were ignored, evident through the creation of new laws and regulations.

= Affected regions across the United States

= Today, there are still communities around the United States that do not have access to clean water. While some regions have developed alternatives to deal with this inaccessibility, others are still struggling with this issue. Signage describing Poor Water Quality

In Central Valley, California, residents claim that water is their biggest issue threatening their security and survival. Although they have water that is accessible, it is extremely contaminated therefore residents are forced to travel long distances to acquire suitable drinking water. There is a high cost that comes with attaining potable water which is why many in Central Valley have had no choice other than to relocate to different regions. Regarding the demographics of Central Valley, the population is a combination of migrants that settled in the 1900s. These migrants were Black, Latino, and Asian and the majority were low-income. This initial establishment set the tone for the current state of Central Valley today. More than 50% of all drinking water violations that are reported in California come from the Central Valley. In 2006, it was discovered that 20% of the public water in Central Valley violated the state's maximum contamination level. As a result, many are exposed to higher rates of

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion with the chemical formula . Salts containing this ion are called nitrates. Nitrates are common components of fertilizers and explosives. Almost all inorganic nitrates are soluble in water. An example of an insolu ...

which can damage one's reproductive ability or even increase the likelihood of birth defects and miscarriages. In addition, coliform bacteria and other bacterial contaminants can be found in the public water and are responsible for a number of waterborne diseases. This situation is a direct result of these communities being continuously disregarded when it comes to the implementation of policy. The combination of racial discrimination and poverty can be credited to the ongoing water crisis in Central Valley. In the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

, many experience issues with wastewater, specifically due to the development of contamination sites and hazardous waste sites. Spanning all the way from Delaware to Texas, the southern " blackbelt" is 54% Black. These residents lack proper plumbing systems and access to proper sanitation. These contamination sites are often placed around communities that are composed of minorities, specifically Black and Hispanic individuals. In 1983 the

Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal gover ...

(formerly the General Accounting Office) published a study examining the relationship between the location of hazardous waste sites and the racial and economic status of the surrounding residents. It was discovered that race was the greatest predictor of the location of a contamination site. Close proximity to toxic landfills and long term exposure to wastewater results in a myriad of health implications. A 2017 study performed by

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate S ...

examined the development of parasites in Lowndes County, Alabama — a region where 73% of its residents are Black and 31.4% of residents live below the poverty line. It was discovered that 34.5% of individuals living in this high-risk environment tested positive for

hookworm Hookworms are intestinal, blood-feeding, parasitic roundworms that cause types of infection known as helminthiases. Hookworm infection is found in many parts of the world, and is common in areas with poor access to adequate water, sanitation, ...

, a parasite linked to wastewater. In addition, 73% of the participants in the study reported exposure to raw sewage inside of their homes. The establishment of contamination sites is directly linked to the location of certain racial groups, emphasizing how the accessibility of clean water disproportionately affects people of color. In

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of ...

, residents consumed drinking water that contained high amounts of

which resulted in a variety of negative health effects. The city of Flint is composed of low income African Americans who experienced a shift in their water supply due to financial limitations. Their water supply was switched from the City of Detroit's Huron Water Supply to water from the Flint River in 2014. A group of researchers at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

discovered that the water in the Flint River was highly corrosive due to the inflated levels of lead found in the water. The decision to switch water sources was made on the state level and completely disregarded the potential impacts it could have had on the communities living in Flint, Michigan. Residents argue that this issue was a result of Michigan's economic history and political decision-making that often left Flint in the dark. The water crisis in Flint highlights the racial disparities that are evident when examining certain regions' access to clean water.

Federal spending on water accessibility

Since the late twentieth century, there has been a shift in money and resources allocated towards funding new water infrastructure. As of 2000,

federal funding In the United States, federal assistance, also known as federal aid, federal benefits, or federal funds, is defined as any federal program, project, service, or activity provided by the federal government that directly assists domestic governme ...

for water accessibility had dropped nearly 70% since the 1980s. In addition, federal spending declined from $76 per person in 1977 to just $11 per person in 2014. The responsibility of funding water and sanitation projects has moved from the federal government to local governments. While this method may be sustainable for a large majority of communities, groups that are located in impoverished areas do not have the financial resources to embark on large water projects. In the last several years, local and state governments have been forced to increase their spending to compensate for the withdrawal of federal funds. The main reason for this redistribution of money is due to the federal government's shift in focus onto other projects such as transportation, research, and education. In 2008 the

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (informally referred to as NYSDEC, DEC, EnCon or NYSENCON) is a department of New York state government. The department guides and regulates the conservation, improvement, and protection ...

performed a study and determined that in order for New York to maintain and update current water infrastructure, it would require $36.2 billion, a number much greater than the EPA's estimate of $21.8 billion. By reallocating funds to meet water infrastructure needs, the estimated gain in annual economic activity would be above $220 billion and improve the accessibility of water for many. With low income minority communities already being disproportionately affected by water access issues, the cut in federal spending only furthers the disparities that these groups face. These communities lack the resources to solve this issue on their own and look towards the federal government for assistance. However, their lack of involvement and general disregard for these communities leads to the continuation of their troubles.

Pricing and affordability

The median household in the U.S. spent about 1.1% of its income on water and sewerage in 2002. However, poor households face a different situation: In 1997 18% of U.S. households, many of them poor, paid more than 4% of their income on their water and sewer bill. The mean U.S.

water tariff A water tariff (often called ''water rate'' in the United States and Canada) is a price assigned to water supplied by a public utility through a piped network to its customers. The term is also often applied to wastewater tariffs. Water and wastewa ...

– excluding sewer tariffs – was $2.72 per 1,000 gallons ($0.72 per cubic meter) in 2000, with significant variations between localities. Average residential water tariffs for a monthly consumption of 15 cubic meters varied between $0.35 per cubic meter in Chicago and $3.01 in Atlanta in 2007. The combined water and sewer tariff was $0.64 in Chicago and $3.01 in Atlanta, with Atlanta not charging separately for sewer services. Annual combined water and sewer bills vary between $228 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and $1,476 in

in 2008. For purposes of comparison, the average water and sewer bill in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is En ...

in 2008 was equivalent to $466. The average annual increase in typical residential water bills was approximately 5.3 percent from 2001 through 2009, while the increase in typical residential sewer bills was approximately 5.5 percent according to data from the 50 Largest Cities Water and Wastewater Rate Survey by

Black & Veatch Black & Veatch (BV) is the largest engineering firm in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Founded in 1915 in Kansas City, Missouri it is now headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas It is a global engineering, procurement, construction ( EPC) ...

.Black & Veatch
50 Largest Cities Water/Wastewater Rate Survey 2009–2010

Retiring workforce

The water community in the US is faced with a swiftly retiring workforce and a tightening market place for new workers. In 2008, approximately one third of executives and managers were expected to retire in the following five years.Gary Zimmerman, Executive Director of AWWA in Water and sanitation utilities in the United States had 41,922 employees in 2002.

Fluoridation

Water fluoridation Water fluoridation is the controlled adjustment of fluoride to a public water supply solely to reduce tooth decay. Fluoridated water contains fluoride at a level that is effective for preventing cavities; this can occur naturally or by adding ...

, the controlled addition of moderate concentrations of

fluoride Fluoride (). According to this source, is a possible pronunciation in British English. is an inorganic, monatomic anion of fluorine, with the chemical formula (also written ), whose salts are typically white or colorless. Fluoride salts ty ...

to a

public water supply In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichke ...

to reduce

tooth decay Tooth decay, also known as cavities or caries, is the breakdown of teeth due to acids produced by bacteria. The cavities may be a number of different colors from yellow to black. Symptoms may include pain and difficulty with eating. Complicatio ...

, is used for about two-thirds of the U.S. population on public water systems. Almost all major public health and dental organizations support water fluoridation, or consider it safe. Nevertheless, it is contentious for ethical, safety, and efficacy reasons.

Responses to address issues

Supply-side management

Historically the predominant response to increasing water demand in the U.S. has been to tap into ever more distant sources of conventional water supply, in particular rivers. Because of environmental concerns and limitations in the availability of water resources, including droughts that may be due to climate change, this approach now is in many cases not feasible any more. Still, supply-side management is often being pursued tapping into non-conventional water resources, in particular seawater desalination in coastal areas with high population growth. California alone had plans to build 21 desalination plants in 2006 with a total capacity of per day, which would represent a massive 70-fold increase over current seawater desalination capacity in the state. In 2007 the largest desalination plant in the United States is the one at

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater ...

, Florida, which began desalinating of water per day in December 2007. Industrial water as a share of total water withdrawals, OWID

In 2005 over 2,000 desalination plants with a capacity of more than 100m3/day had been installed or contracted in every state in the U.S. with a total capacity of more than 6 million m3/day. Only 7% of that capacity was for seawater desalination, while 51% used brackish water and 26% used river water as water source. The contracted capacity corresponds to 2.4% of total municipal and industrial water use in the country in 2000. According to that source total municipal and industrial water use in 2000 was per day. The actual share of desalinated water is lower, because some of the contracted capacity was never built or never operated, was closed down or is not operated at full capacity. In 2017, the U.S. Global Water Strategy was passed, where the U.S. Government will work with countries in order to achieve four objective: increase access to safe drinking water, while promoting hygienes and sanitation services, protect freshwater resources, promote cooperation on shared waters, and strengthen water financing.

Demand-side management

Demand-side management, including the reduction of leakage in the distribution network and

, are other options that are being considered and, in some cases, also applied to address water scarcity. For example,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

has reduced per capita water use from per day in 1990 to per day in 2007 through a comprehensive water conservation program including pricing policies, education, regulations and rebates for water-saving appliances. Other cities such as Atlanta and Las Vegas have also launched water conservation programs that are somewhat less comprehensive than the one in Seattle concerning indoor water use. However, Las Vegas has intentionally focused on curbing outdoor water demand, which accounts for 70% of residential water use in the city, through reductions in turf area and incentives for the use of rains sensors, irrigation controllers and pool covers. At the federal level, the

Energy Policy Act of 1992 The Energy Policy Act of 1992, effective October 24, 1992, (102nd Congress H.R.776.ENR, abbreviated as EPACT92) is a United States government act. It was passed by Congress and set goals, created mandates, and amended utility laws to increase c ...

set standards for water-efficient appliances, replacing the per flush (gpf) toilet with a new 1.6 gpf/6 litres per flush maximum standard for all new toilets. By 1994, federal law mandated that showerheads and faucets sold in the U.S. release no more than 2.5 and of water per minute respectively. Also in 1994 the AWWA established a clearinghouse for water conservation, efficiency, and demand management, called WaterWiser, to assist water conservation professionals and the general public in using water more efficiently. In 2006 the EPA launched its

program to encourage

water efficiency Water efficiency is the practice of reducing water consumption by measuring the amount of water required for a particular purpose and is proportionate to the amount of essential water used.Vickers, Amy. “Water use and conservation." Amherst, M ...

beyond the standards set by the Energy Policy Act through the use of a special label on consumer products. The Obama administration further tightened the 2.5-gallons-per-minute rule so that fixtures with multiple showerheads could only use that amount collectively. The Trump administration loosened that part of the rule to consider each showerhead individually. In 2021, the Biden administration proposed restoring the Obama version. Distributional losses in the U.S. are typically 10–15% of total withdrawals, although they can exceed 25% of total water use in older systems.Heather Cooley and Peter Gleick:Urban Water-Use Efficiencies:Lessons from United States Citites, in: Peter H. Gleick:The World's Water 2008–2009 – The Biennial Report of Freshwater Resources, Island Press, 2009, According to another source unaccounted-for water (UFW) – which includes system losses, water used for firefighting and water used in the treatment process – was estimated to be only 8% in systems with more than 500,000 connections in 2000. In comparison, the level of water losses is 7% in Germany, 19% in England and Wales, and 26% in France. Together with Germany water losses in the U.S. are thus among the lowest in 16 industrial countries. Low water tariffs and inappropriate tariff structures do not encourage water conservation. For example, decreasing-block rates, under which the unit rate decreases with consumption, offer hardly any incentive for water conservation. In 2000 about 51% of water tariffs in the U.S.were uniform (i.e. the unit tariff is independent of the level of consumption), 12% were increasing-block tariffs (the unit rate increases with consumption) and 19% were decreasing-block tariffs. The use of decreasing-block tariffs declined sharply from 45% of all tariff structures in 1992. Sewer rates are often flat rates that are not linked to consumption, thus offering no incentive to conserve water.

Water reuse

Reuse of

is an increasingly common response to water scarcity in many parts of the United States. Reclaimed water is being reused directly for various non-potable uses in the United States, including urban landscape irrigation of parks, school yards, highway medians and golf courses; fire protection; commercial uses such as vehicle washing; industrial reuse such as cooling water, boiler water and process water; environmental and recreational uses such as the creation or restoration of wetlands; as well as agricultural irrigation. In some cases, such as in Irvine Ranch Water District in Orange County it is also used for flushing toilets. It was estimated that in 2002 a total of per day, or almost 3% of public water supply, were being directly reused. California reused 0.6 and Florida per day respectively. Twenty-five states had regulations regarding the use of reclaimed water in 2002. Planned direct reuse of reclaimed water was initiated in 1932 with the construction of a reclaimed water facility at San Francisco's

. Reclaimed water is typically distributed with a color-coded dual piping network that keeps reclaimed water pipes completely separate from potable water pipes. The leaders in use of reclaimed water in the U.S. are

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

and California, with Irvine Ranch Water District as one of the leading developers. They were the first district to approve the use of reclaimed water for in-building piping and use in flushing toilets. In places like Florida, where it is necessary to avoid nutrient overload of sensitive receiving water, reuse of treated or reclaimed water can be more economically feasible than meeting the higher standards for surface water disposal mandated by the Clean Water Act.Sierra Club Fact Sheet
In a January 2012 U.S. National Research Council report, a committee of independent experts found that expanding the reuse of municipal wastewater for irrigation, industrial uses, and drinking water augmentation could significantly increase the United States' total available water resources. The committee noted that a portfolio of treatment options is available to mitigate water quality issues in reclaimed water. The report also includes a risk analysis that suggests the risk of exposure to certain microbial and chemical contaminants from drinking reclaimed water is not any higher than the risk from drinking water from current water treatment systems—and in some cases, may be orders of magnitude lower. The report concludes that adjustments to the federal regulatory framework could enhance public health protection and increase public confidence in

water reuse Water reclamation (also called wastewater reuse, water reuse or water recycling) is the process of converting municipal wastewater (sewage) or industrial wastewater into water that can be reused for a variety of purposes. Types of reuse include: ...

. There are examples of communities that have safely used recycled water for many years.

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

's sanitation districts have provided treated wastewater for landscape irrigation in parks and golf courses since 1929. The first reclaimed water facility in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

was built at

in 1932. The Water Replenishment District of Southern California was the first groundwater agency to obtain permitted use of recycled water for

groundwater recharge Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs ...

in 1962. Orange County is located in Southern California, USA, and houses a classic example in indirect potable reuse. A large-scale artificial groundwater recharge scheme exists in the area, providing a much-needed freshwater barrier to intruding seawater. Part of the injected water consists of recycled water, which started in 1976 with Water Factory 21, which used RO and high lime to clean the water (production capacity of 19,000 m³ per day). This plant was decommissioned in 2004 and has since made place for a new project with a higher capacity (265,000 m³ per day with an ultimate capacity of 492,000 m³ per day), under the name of Groundwater Replenishment System. The

Irvine Ranch Water District Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) is a California Special District formed in 1961 and incorporated under thCalifornia water code IRWD headquarters are located in Irvine, California. IRWD offers the following services: potable water sales, sewe ...

(IRWD) was the first water district in California to receive an unrestricted use permit from the state for its recycled water; such a permit means that water can be used for any purpose except drinking. IRWD maintains one of the largest recycled water systems in the nation with more than 400 miles serving more than 4,500 metered connections. The Irvine Ranch Water District and Orange County Water District in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

are established leaders in recycled water. Further, the Orange County Water District, located in Orange County, water is given more advanced treatments and is used indirectly for drinking. The Trinity River in Texas is a representative example of an effluent-dominated surface water system where de facto potable

occurs. The section of the river south of Dallas/Fort Worth consists almost entirely of wastewater effluent under base flow conditions. In response to concerns about

nutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excr ...

, the wastewater treatment plants in Dallas/Fort Worth that collectively discharge about 2 million m³ per day of effluent employ nutrient removal processes. Little dilution of the effluent-dominated waters occurs as the water travels from Dallas/Fort Worth to Lake Livingston, which is one of the main drinking water reservoirs for Houston. Once the water reaches

, it is subjected to conventional drinking water treatment prior to delivery to consumers in Houston.

Non-potable reuse (NPR)

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Clark County, Nevada Clark County is located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,265,461. Most of the county population resides in the Las Vegas Census County Divisions, which hold 1,771,945 people as of the 2010 Census, acros ...

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a popu ...

Contra Costa County, California ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

operates the largest recycled water system in the United States. *

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

(

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...

) * St. Petersburg, Florida

Indirect potable reuse (IPR)

Orange County is located in Southern California, USA, and houses a classic example in IPR. A large-scale artificial groundwater recharge scheme exists in the area, providing a much-needed freshwater barrier to intruding seawater. Part of the injected water consists of recycled water, starting as of 1976 with Water Factory 21, which used RO and high lime to clean the water (production capacity of 19,000 m³ per day). This plant was de-commissioned in 2004 and has since made place for a new project with a higher capacity (265,000 m³ per day with an ultimate capacity of 492,000 m³ per day), under the name of Groundwater Replenishment System. This newer scheme uses the newer technological combination of RO, MF, and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide. Plans are also underway to further increase the capacity of the system, which already provides up to 20% of the water used by the country. In the US,

, California is the leading state implementing IPR. MF, RO and UV/H₂O₂ are employed prior to groundwater replenishment with the treated effluents (CDPH, 2013). In San Diego, the effort to increase the share of recycled water was rekindled with an extensive study in 2006. MF provides substantial removal of the dissolved effluent organic matter (dEfOM), while dEfOM reduction down to 0.5 mg/L (in terms of TOC) is achieved through RO application. The chemical oxidation treatment (UV/H₂O₂) following the membrane steps, results in the mitigation of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), as well as in the improvement of the effluent quality with respect to its organic content. The City of El Paso's (Texas, USA) water sources include groundwater aquifers and surface water from the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

. In order to increase groundwater levels, the El Paso Water Utilities injects advanced treated reclaimed water into the aquifer. The advanced treatment facilities use two-stage powdered activated carbon (PAC), addition of lime, two-stage recarbonation, sand filtration, ozonation, granular activated carbon (GAC), and

chlorination Chlorination may refer to: * Chlorination reaction In chemistry, halogenation is a chemical reaction that entails the introduction of one or more halogens into a compound. Halide-containing compounds are pervasive, making this type of transform ...

for purifying the water. The Hueco Bolson Recharge Project, which initially began in 1985, currently recharges 1,700 acre-feet per year of reclaimed water at 10 injection wells and 800 acre-feet per year at an infiltration basin for groundwater recharge. In

, USA, the Colorado River Municipal Water District implemented a project to capture treated municipal effluent from the City of Big Spring, and provide additional advanced treatment prior to blending into their raw surface water delivery system (2012). Advanced treatment of the municipal effluent consisted of MF, RO, and ultraviolet oxidation, producing very high quality water, which is blended with surface water from Lake E.V. Spence for distribution to their member and customer cities (production of 6,700 m³ per day). Further examples: *

Big Spring, Texas Big Spring is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Texas, United States, at the crossroads of U.S. Highway 87 and Interstate 20. With a population of 27,282 as of the 2010 census, it is the largest city between Midland to the west, ...

indirect potable reuse program *

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, ...

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

* Payson, Arizona * The Torreele project in the

Veurne Veurne (; french: Furnes, italic=no, ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Belgium, Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Veurne proper an ...

coastal region of Belgium, which began operating in 2002""Reuse of water in the EU and the Mediterranean", by Bill McCann, Water 21, Journal of the International Water Association, April 2008, p. 42-44, quoting th
Aquarec project
/ref> *

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

Occoquan Reservoir – The

Upper Occoquan Sewage Authority The Millard H. Robbins, Jr. Water Reclamation Plant, which is operated by the Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA), is located in Centreville, Virginia and it was formerly known as the Upper Occoquan Sewage Authority. UOSA serves the western port ...

plant discharges its highly treated output to supply roughly 20% of the inflow into the Occoquan Reservoir, which provides drinking water used by the

Fairfax County Water Authority Fairfax County Water Authority (FCWA or more recently Fairfax Water for short) is the main water company in the Northern Virginia region of the United States, and one of the four major water providers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (the ...

– one of the three major water providers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. *

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. Accord ...

(toilet-to-tap reuse as a temporary measure during drought conditions, 2014–2015; Indirect potable use 2015)

Direct potable reuse (DPR)

In July 2014, the city of

Wichita Falls Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. According ...

, Texas (USA), became one of the first in the United States to use treated wastewater directly in its drinking water supply (production of 45,000–60,000 m³ per day). Treated wastewater is disinfected and pumped to the Cypress Water Treatment Plant where it goes through clarification, microfiltration (MF),

reverse osmosis Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic ...

(RO), and ultraviolet light disinfection before being released into a holding

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons ...

where it is blended with lake water (50:50). The blended water goes through a seven-step conventional surface water treatment. Proposed projects: *

– By 2019, the

will build a plant to replenish their groundwater aquifer with purified water in order to deal with the shortage of rain and snow fall, restricted water imports and local

groundwater contamination Groundwater pollution (also called groundwater contamination) occurs when pollutants are released to the ground and make their way into groundwater. This type of water pollution can also occur naturally due to the presence of a minor and unwante ...

. *

(

)

Pollution control

Numerous efforts have been undertaken in the United States to control the pollution of water resources and to make drinking water safe. The most comprehensive federal regulations and standards for the water treatment industry were implemented in the 1970s, in reaction to a huge increase in environmental concerns in the country. In 1972, Congress passed the

(CWA), with the unprecedented goal of eliminating all water pollution by 1985 and authorized expenditures of $24.6 billion in research and construction grants. In 1974, Congress passed the

, specifying a number of contaminants that had to be closely monitored and reported to residents should they exceed the maximum contaminant levels. The CWA included substantial federal grant funding to improve sewage treatment infrastructure in the form of construction grants to local governments. The 1987 Water Quality Act amended the CWA, replacing the sewage treatment construction grant program with a system of subsidized loans, using the

(CWSRF). The loans use a combination of 80% federal funds and 20% matching funds from states. New challenges arose, such as the need to address

s for which EPA issued a policy in 1994, and which was codified into law by Congress in 2000. In 1996 Congress established the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, in order to finance investments to improve compliance with more stringent drinking water quality standards. Today cities make significant investments in the control of combined sewer overflows, including through the construction of storage facilities in the sewerage system in order to allow for the subsequent controlled release of sewage into treatment plants.

Federal assistance

One way to address the funding needs of utilities to respond to the various challenges they face without increasing the burden of water bills on users is federal financial assistance. Centralized water and sanitation infrastructure is typically financed through utilities' own revenue or debt. Debt can be in the form of soft loans from state revolving funds (SRF), credits from commercial Banks or – in the case of large utilities – from bonds issued directly in the capital market. In the case of water supply (i.e. excluding sanitation), 42% of investments were financed by private sector borrowing, 39% by current revenues, 13% by government loans including the Drinking Water SRF, 5% by government grants and 1% from other sources. There are two SRFs: The larger

, created in 1987, and the smaller Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, created in 1997. They receive federal and state contributions and issue bonds. In turn, they provide soft loans to utilities in their respective states, with average interest rates at 2% for up to 20 years in the case of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. In addition to the SRFs, the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...

provides grants, loans and loan guarantees for water supply and sanitation in small communities (those with less than 10,000 inhabitants), together with technical assistance and training. The

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

of February 17, 2009, provided $4 billion for the Clean Water SRF, $2 billion for the Drinking Water SRF and, among others, $126 million for water recycling projects through the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

. This program exceeded previous levels of financing, since Congress approved only US$1.5 billion of federal funding for State Revolving Funds in 2008. This was much below the historical average of US$3 billion/year for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (1987–2006) and US$1.2 billion/year for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (1997–2005). The share of federal funding for sanitation has declined from almost 50% in the early 1980s to about 20% in the early 1990s., p. 2-3 A May 2016 article asserted that there has been "a huge federal retreat from helping cities fund water projects," stating that overall federal spending on water utilities "has dropped 75 percent since 1977," and that experts expect more situations like the Flint water crisis to emerge. Congress passed the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 (WIFIA) to provide an expanded credit program for water and wastewater infrastructure projects, with broader eligibility criteria than the previously authorized revolving funds. Pursuant to the act, EPA established its Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center in 2015 to help local governments and municipal utilities design innovative financing mechanisms, including public-private partnerships. It is part of the federal government's Build American Investment Initiative. Congress amended the WIFIA program in 2015 and 2016. One of the envisaged instruments to boost financing in water infrastructure are Qualified Public Infrastructure Bonds (QPIBs), tax-exempt municipal bonds that can be used by private companies.

Protecting water utilities from terrorist attack

In 2007 EPA stated, "Improving the security of our nation's drinking water and wastewater infrastructures has become a top priority since the events of

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. Significant actions are underway to assess and reduce vulnerabilities to potential

terrorist attack Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

s; to plan for and practice response to emergencies and incidents; and to develop new security technologies to detect and monitor

contaminant Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination Wi ...

s and prevent security breaches." One of the most important elements of water security is early and accurate contamination detection. The EPA has issued advisory material and guidelines for contamination warning systems to be implemented in water utilities and supplies. The security challenges that utilities frequently revolve around fast detection,

accuracy Accuracy and precision are two measures of '' observational error''. ''Accuracy'' is how close a given set of measurements ( observations or readings) are to their '' true value'', while ''precision'' is how close the measurements are to each o ...

, and the ability to take fast action when there is a water problem. If contamination is detected early enough, it can be prevented from reaching

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

s, and emergency water supplies can be put into effect. In cases where contamination might still reach consumers, fast and efficient

communication system A communications system or communication system is a collection of individual telecommunications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and terminal equipment usually capable of interconnection and interoperat ...

s are necessary. All these factors also point to the need for organized and practiced

emergency procedure An emergency procedure is a plan of actions to be conducted in a certain order or manner, in response to a specific class of reasonably foreseeable emergency, a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or the environment. ...

s and preparedness. Since 2002, under the Bioterrorism Act, a water utility supplying more than 3,300 people must take at least the following measures to ensure security of the water supply: * Conduct an assessment of the facility's vulnerabilities to

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The ter ...

, insider

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

, or terrorist attack, and submit the report to the EPA. * Show that the facility has an up-to-date

emergency response Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while others deal wi ...

plan, should an incident occur. More recently, under the Drinking Water Security Act of 2009, the EPA is now required to establish risk-based performance standards for community water systems serving more than 3,300 people.

References

External links

Ground Water and Drinking Water
– EPA
EPA Wastewater Permit Program – NPDES

– Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

– CDC
ReNUWIt, Engineering Research Center for Re-inventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure

National Rural Water Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Water Supply And Sanitation In The United States

History

Piped water supply until 1948

Sanitation until 1948

After 1948: Enter the federal government

Technical and environmental overview

Infrastructure

Water sources

Cities supplied primarily by surface water without filtration

Cities supplied primarily by surface water with water treatment

Cities supplied primarily by groundwater

Cities supplied by a mix of groundwater and surface water

Rainwater harvesting

Water use

Institutional overview

Service providers

Regulators

Wastewater treatment

Other stakeholders

Issues

Water scarcity and climate change

Water security

Pollution

Sewer overflows

Drinking water quality

Groundwater pollution

Investment gap

Access

Historical causes of limited access to water

= Affected regions across the United States

Federal spending on water accessibility

Pricing and affordability

Retiring workforce

Fluoridation

Responses to address issues

Supply-side management

Demand-side management

Water reuse

Non-potable reuse (NPR)

Indirect potable reuse (IPR)

Direct potable reuse (DPR)

Pollution control

Federal assistance

Protecting water utilities from terrorist attack

See also

References

Further reading

External links