Providing Safe Drinking Water in America: 2021 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report

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Each year, EPA analyzes and reports on drinking water violations at public water systems or PWSs in the U.S. The requirement to produce this report can be found in Safe Drinking Water Act or SDWA Section 1414(c)(3)(B).The SDWA requires EPA to publicize an annual report to include the following:  

  • Summarize and evaluate violations of National Primary Drinking Water Regulations by PWSs reported by States, Federally Recognized Indian Tribes or Tribes, and Territories;  
  • Include information about EPA's enforcement and compliance assistance activities at PWSs serving Indian country, and financial assistance provided to Tribes, including those in Alaska; and 
  • Make recommendations concerning the resources needed for improving compliance. 

In this report, EPA provides information about ongoing and planned SDWA compliance assistance and enforcement activities. The target audiences for the national report are the general public, drinking water regulators, and environmental professionals, although anyone interested in a summary of PWS compliance may find the report useful. EPA presents the required annual report online through the Agency’s website.  

Public Water System Violations Reported by Primacy Agencies 

The Enforcement and Compliance History Online or ECHO Drinking Water Dashboard displays PWS activities and violations in an interactive format. The Dashboard is where EPA makes information on PWS violations reported by primacy agencies (States, Tribes, and Territories with EPA approval to implement the SDWA) publicly available. The Dashboard also makes this information available for areas where EPA is the primacy agency (i.e., Wyoming, the District of Columbia, and all of Indian country, except the Navajo Nation which maintains primacy for almost all PWSs on the Navajo Reservation).  

The Dashboard provides users a number of different ways to view and summarize the data. On the Dashboard, users can access national statistics on violations, individual violations, and enforcement responses reported by the primacy agencies. Each Dashboard panel can be filtered to present the annual compliance data at the national level and for all tribal areas at once, or more finely sorted to display data by EPA Regions, States, Tribes, and Territories. Note: when accessing data on the Drinking Water Dashboard, users should ensure that the “Year View” has the “Calendar Year” option selected using the drop-down menu. First-time users of the interactive annual National PWS Compliance Dashboard Report may find the instructions at ECHO Quick Start Guide helpful. 

Snapshot Summary and Evaluation of PWS Compliance in Calendar Year 2021 

  • During calendar year 2021, the number of active PWSs in the U.S. was 153,611.  
  • Seventy-five percent (114,758) of the PWSs active in that year had no reported violations of drinking water standards.  
  • Twenty-five percent (38,853) were reported to have violated at least one drinking water standard in 2021.    
  • The data submitted by primacy agencies indicate that four percent (6,586) of the PWSs in the U.S. were reported to have violated a health-based drinking water standard (a contaminant was detected in excess of allowable limits or water treatment requirements were not met) in 2021.  
  • Nearly nineteen percent (28,828) of PWSs failed to meet at least one monitoring or reporting requirement, with the result that information about what contaminants were present in their drinking water was late, incomplete, or not reported at all.    
  • EPA prioritizes SDWA enforcement responses using a methodology that assigns points to every violation based on the seriousness and duration of the violation. The violation points for each PWS are added together to produce a total score. A PWS with a score of 11 or higher is designated an enforcement priority until its violations are either returned to compliance or addressed with a formal enforcement action. In 2021, 4,223 (3%) PWSs were an enforcement priority in at least one quarter of the year. Systems typically become enforcement priorities after multiple violations over a sustained period. The majority (94%) of PWSs in enforcement priority status were small systems serving a population of 3,300 or less. 
  • In 2021, the EPA and the other primacy agencies initiated at least one formal enforcement action at 2,351 PWSs and at least one informal enforcement action at 26,367 PWSs in response to drinking water violations at PWSs within their jurisdictions.    
  • In 2021, 25,127 PWSs corrected their violations and were reported as returned to compliance.  
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The data in these reports may differ somewhat from other reports that draw from the Safe Drinking Water Information System-Federal, depending on the specific queries used to generate each report.

State/Territory/Navajo Nation Annual Public Water System Compliance Reports

Section 1414(c)(3)(A) of SDWA requires that each primacy agency (a term that includes States, Tribes, Commonwealths, and Territories that EPA has approved to exercise primary enforcement authority under the SDWA) shall prepare, make readily available to the public, and submit to the Administrator of EPA an annual report of violations of National Primary Drinking Water Regulations in the primacy agency. Currently, the Navajo Nation is the only Tribe approved to exercise primacy enforcement authority. These Annual State Public Water System Compliance Reports are to include violations of maximum contaminant levels, treatment requirements, variances and exemptions, and monitoring requirements. Individual compliance reports can be found at State annual PWS compliance reports for Calendar Year 2021. 

Recommendations to Improve Compliance and Address the Findings in the National PWS Compliance Report 

After reviewing the primacy agencies’ annual PWS compliance reports for Calendar Year 2021, EPA makes the following recommendations to improve the ability of PWSs to meet the federal drinking water requirements under the SDWA. These recommendations will be considered in the context of EPA’s Community Water Systems or CWSs National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative or NECI and incorporated into EPA Regions’ plans to implement the initiative, where practicable. The CWSs NECI joins EPA and primacy agencies in partnership to use our resources most effectively to identify, reduce, and prevent noncompliance at CWSs. Learn more about the drinking water NECI.  

1. Continue to Return Systems to Compliance and Prevent Noncompliance 

States, Territories, the Navajo Nation, and EPA will continue working together to return violating PWSs to compliance as efficiently and effectively as possible. Pursuing a holistic approach to addressing noncompliance by all primacy agencies is an important element of improving performance among PWSs, including:  

  • Reducing Health-Based Violations: Take appropriate action to reduce the number of PWSs in violation of health-based standards under the SDWA, with emphasis on CWSs that serve water to at least 15 service connections used by year-round residents or regularly serve at least 25 year-round residents.  
  • Reducing Violation Duration: Shorten the average duration of health-based violations that occur at CWSs.  
  • Improving Reporting: Improve the overall accuracy of data in EPA’s drinking water databases and other information related to SDWA compliance by taking proactive measures to report.  
  • Preventing Noncompliance: Identify and take proactive measures to prevent noncompliance at CWSs that face significant capacity issues or display other indications that they are likely to violate National Primary Drinking Water Regulations. Ensure appropriate intervention (including enforcement) to resolve violations and prevent future noncompliance. 

Primacy agencies, including EPA where it directly implements the SDWA program, will continue to pursue enforcement actions against violating PWSs both to return systems to compliance and to deter future violations. EPA and primacy agencies will continue to implement EPA’s SDWA Enforcement Response Policy. 

EPA’s continuing commitment to working with primacy agencies to protect public health is reflected in EPA’s Strategic Plan for FY 2018–2022. Additionally, EPA is pursuing collaborative approaches for preventing and correcting violations of drinking water standards as the Agency implements the CWS NECI to increase compliance with drinking water standards. This enforcement and compliance initiative joins EPA and primary agencies in partnership to identify how to use our resources most effectively in reducing and preventing noncompliance at CWSs.  

2. Continue to Develop Capacity at Smaller Public Water Systems 

  • EPA will continue its efforts to support PWSs serving 10,000 or fewer consumers through the capacity development program and other sustainability efforts. Recognizing the challenges facing these drinking water systems, EPA provides tools and assistance to develop the technical, financial, and managerial capacity to provide safe drinking water. EPA’s Office of Water also provides information about treatment technology options for small systems. New authorities under the America’s Water and Infrastructure Act (AWIA) of 2018 also promote capacity at small systems.
  • Additional information on EPA’s capacity development efforts can be found at Building the Capacity of Drinking Water Systems. This site includes numerous assistance resources and activities, such as on-site visits and the distribution of easy-to-read guides and checklists. 
  • The Financing for Environmental Compliance website provides financial and technical assistance resources to help communities create a plan to finance environmental capital assets. 
  • For more information on sustainable practices that support water infrastructure and create sustainable communities, see EPA’s Sustainable Water Infrastructure page.  
  • A summary of new authorities added to the SDWA by AWIA can be found in the Congressional Research Service report, America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018: Drinking Water Provisions.
  • The Compliance Advisors for Sustainable Water Systems Program, sponsored by EPA’s Office of Compliance and launched in January 2020, provides on-the-ground technical assistance to help PWSs achieve and sustain environmental compliance. Compliance Advisors provided technical assistance to 42 small drinking water systems in 2021. 

3. Improve Data Quality and Transparency 

Data completeness and accuracy must remain a high priority for EPA and the primacy agencies. Without high quality data, EPA cannot fulfill its responsibility to fully assess the state of compliance of the Nation’s PWSs and to communicate to the public, Congress, and other oversight bodies. The Consumer Confidence Report and Public Notification are tools to raise the public’s awareness of their drinking water quality. 

EPA’s transition to a dashboard format to annually summarize violation and enforcement data for PWSs increases the public’s access to the data. EPA believes that raising the public’s awareness of the violations at PWSs will encourage PWSs to improve their compliance. The dashboard format allows users easier access to additional data through hyperlinks and gives users the ability to filter and download the data.   

Enforcement and Compliance and Financial Assistance Activities in Indian Country

EPA works with Tribal governments and/or Tribal utilities to help their PWSs comply with the requirements of the SDWA and improve access to safe drinking water. EPA can authorize Tribes to implement the SDWA program (known as “primacy”) and enforce national standards within their boundaries. To date, only the Navajo Nation has applied for and received primacy for most PWSs on the Navajo Nation. EPA, therefore, directly implements the SDWA for almost all PWSs in Indian country. EPA devotes considerable financial and staff resources to improve compliance in Indian country, as discussed in more detail below. In accordance with SDWA Section 1414(c)(3)(B), EPA’s National PWSs Compliance Report includes information on enforcement and compliance assistance activities in Indian country and financial assistance provided to improve compliance. 

Violations and Enforcement Actions in Indian Country 

Information on PWSs in Indian country with reported violations during the calendar year can be found on EPA’s Drinking Water Dashboard by selecting the specific Tribe under the drop-down menu for “Tribes.” With the Drinking Water Dashboard, the user will have the ability to select from over 200 Tribes where PWSs are located. 

EPA Financial Assistance for PWSs in Indian Country  

EPA provides financial assistance to Tribes for planning and construction expenditures at community or non-profit non-community PWSs that serve Tribes. Information on the financial assistance provided by EPA to Tribal PWSs is available on EPA’s website for Tribal Drinking Water Program Fund Allotments. These funds are available to support the Navajo Nation (as a primacy agency), assist Tribes developing primacy programs and individual program components, and support EPA primacy (direct implementation) activities in Indian country. These funds are used for activities such as:  

  • Providing technical assistance to owners and operators of water systems;  
  • Maintaining compliance data systems;  
  • Compiling and analyzing compliance information;  
  • Responding to violations; and 
  • Conducting sanitary surveys.  

Each year, two percent of the appropriation for the national Drinking Water State Revolving Fund or DWSRF program is set aside for American Indian communities and Alaska Native Villages through the Drinking Water Infrastructure Grants Tribal Set-Aside or DWIG-TSA program. These funds may be used for various projects, including the following:  

  • Distribution and transmission system improvements;  
  • Community water system extensions; 
  • Storage facilities;  
  • Treatment improvements; and 
  • Construction of new pump houses.  

Additionally, EPA makes available for Tribes portions of the annual appropriations for grants initiated under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act funding through the Small, Underserved and Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program or SUDC and the Reducing Lead in Drinking Water Tribal Grant Program. Eligibilities for the SUDC program include support for PWS capacity development and for infrastructure activities described in the DWIG-TSA. The Reducing Lead in Drinking Water Tribal Grant Program is focused on activities such corrosion control and replacing lead service lines.  

Previous National PWS Report

Prior to 2014, EPA’s National PWSs Annual Compliance Reports were published as a single static report that included PWS violations reported by primacy agencies (i.e., States, Tribes, and Territories) in their required Annual Public Water System Compliance Reports; recommendations for improving compliance; and a discussion on EPA's enforcement, compliance assistance, and financial assistance in Indian country. Beginning with 2014, EPA reformatted its annual reports to summarize the data on the Drinking Water Dashboard, with an archive of previous National PWS Annual Compliance Reports that can be accessed at the links below:

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Last updated on December 19, 2023