The American Water Works Association (AWWA) surveyed 1,977 Americans in a June 2022 Public Perceptions of Tap Water poll regarding how they felt about the tap water in their community. As many as 75 percent of respondents reported they felt tap water was safe, while 80 percent said they trusted their water utility.
The survey also reported that 70 percent of respondents felt the tap water in their community was excellent or good. This percentage increased for communities that performed routine testing on their community’s water quality. In these communities, 88 percent of people were satisfied with the water quality, up from 73 percent of respondents who were unaware that their water utility performed water quality tests.
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1975 and subsequent amendments to this law are why drinking water is safe in communities nationwide. The acts enable the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set quality standards using a three-step method.
First, the EPA identifies contaminants in a water source and determines at what levels the public is at risk for adverse health impacts. This process specifies which contaminants they must regulate and which they must further research.
The second and third steps involve establishing a maximum contamination level goal (MCLG) and maximum contamination level (MCL) for water in an area. The MCLG (second step) refers to keeping the contaminants it regulates below a certain risk threshold within a margin of safety. The MCL (third step) refers to the standard the EPA sets for known pollutants in a water system. The EPA enforces MCL standards using the most efficient, cost-effective solutions available.
According to an August 2020 article in the environmental publication Utopia, residents in communities around the US can generally trust that their tap water is safe to drink. However, low-income rural communities frequently experience safety issues. The Flint, Michigan, water contamination crisis and the Elk River, Virginia, water contamination incident are well-known examples, but they are far from the only instances of water contamination within the US.
A Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 2018 research study focused on violations that happened in the previous 35 years and found that low-income rural and minor communities have a higher risk of SDWA violations. The study also found that, generally speaking, if the water was unsafe to drink, it was not the first time the community utility company was aware of the issue. They also found that poor water quality was a reoccurring issue in these areas. These violations typically occurred in rural areas, most commonly in communities in the southwestern states, such as Oklahoma and Texas.
Area residents can access their community’s annual water quality report (Consumer Confidence Report), which is usually published online or sent to residents through regular mail. They can also contact the non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG), which compiles information on the safety of community tap water. They can then determine whether the tap water in their community is safe through its zip code tool. However, it is important to note that the EWG standards are stricter than the EPA’s.
Residents with concerns about their community’s water quality can also contact the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1 (800) 426-4791. They can also visit the EPA’s website on private drinking wells to get more information on what course of action they should take if they source their water from a private well.
