Last week, when my best friend visited, she asked which spigot she was supposed to use on my sink for drinking water. We have an under-the-sink reverse osmosis filter. She asked if it was like the one we had installed at our last house. I told her all the ways my current one is far better. She recalled how I installed the one at our previous house because we had terrible water, and she asked about the water at our current home. I told her about how the chlorine was so high in our tap water that it would make my eyes water. And while true, I didn’t go off on a tangent about how I obsessively looked at all of the publically available data when we moved to assess any public health concerns.
It wasn’t so much that I was afraid to fly my nerd flag. She’s plenty familiar with it. Moreso, I didn’t want to be a fear monger. Most people would probably benefit from a water purification system. I learned pretty quickly when running my nonprofit that people did not want to hear bad news about threats to public health. Maybe because solving those issues seems insurmountable? Even so, at least then, I had a vessel for addressing those problems. Now, pointing out any of those concerns feels different. I’m not doing anything to actively address the underlying factors that allow companies to profit from degrading the environment and, thereby, the public health of communities.
And so, I thought I would dedicate a post to anyone interested in learning more about the quality of their drinking water.
Consumer Confidence Reports
Unfortunately, these can be more difficult to find than they should be. These Annual Drinking Water Quality Reports can be found on municipal, state, and federal websites. This EPA website is a good place to start.
Drinking Water Mapping Application to Protect Source Waters (DWMAPS)
Based on the descriptions, this application seems like a powerful and useful tool for the public. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to work. I’m mentioning it here nonetheless in hopes that the issues are resolved. I emailed the responsible contact to report a problem. I encourage you to do so as well if you try to access the data, but it doesn’t seem to be working. I can confirm that government employees LOVE to hear that the public is actually interested in and using the tools they spend forever making for us.
EPA Drinking Water Data and Reports
This EPA website is a great place to find additional information and answer most of your questions related to drinking water.
Google Search Keywords
After searching by state and city on EPA’s website, I was able to confirm the name of my drinking water provider, but I could not access any of the data for which I was searching.
To find that information, I had to search “[drinking water provider name] consumer confidence report.”
The third page that came up in my Google search was the one I was looking for. But please note: “consumer” and “confidence” were missing from my keyword search. If I hadn’t known that municipalities usually make these annual reports available on their websites (if they have one), then I probably would have thought this search came up empty.
Third-Party Drinking Water Assessment
Once you finally access your provider’s annual report, you’ll probably notice there’s not much data. Or maybe you won’t notice because you aren’t particularly familiar with various parameters one could monitor that are relevant to drinking water. Or perhaps, after reviewing information relevant to your source water, you are kind of freaking out and possibly kicking yourself for not knowing these data existed before now? Listen: you’re not alone. These data aren’t widely publicized for a reason. I only know they exist because it was my literal job to know those things. Even so, I had to text a best friend who works in drinking water at EPA, “What’s the name of those annual reports drinking water providers have to share about their water quality,” to find them. All of my initial Google searches, as someone who knows these data exist, came up blank.
Maybe you couldn’t even find a CCR for your drinking water provider. Let me point you to Environmental Working Group’s Tap Water Database in those cases. Frankly, regardless of how accessible and robust your data are, I think looking at EWG’s data is worthwhile. Though the information is a bit outdated, it’s still relevant enough to give you a pretty good idea of the current status.
Use Your Voice
And if you feel like you had to devote entirely too much time to investigative work to find your source provider’s annual water quality report and to understand what the heck any of the information means – you’re not alone. Figuring out ways to support infrastructure improvement and transparency is always worthwhile. I’d love to point you to the website where you can check if you have a local Waterkeeper in your area who can help you get more involved, but apparently, Waterkeeper Alliance doesn’t want to help you with that quest. They used to have a page dedicated to “Find your Waterkeeper,” and now they don’t. Sooo…
I guess let me know if you are having any trouble finding an advocacy group in your area, and I’ll try to help. I thought about leaving this blog post with my annoyance at Waterkeeper Alliance for failing to connect the public with their local Waterkeepers. But then I read this feature on my friend Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Waterkeeper, and remembered how badass those individuals are. Nelson, you’ll never read this. But you, dear sir, are killing it. I’m forever rooting for my Waterkeeper family.