Health Indicator Report of Drinking Water: Public Water Use

People drink and use water every day. The majority of Americans are provided with high quality drinking water. About 90% of people in the United States get their water from a community water system versus a smaller water supply, such as a household well (EPA 2013). The EPA sets regulations for treating and monitoring drinking water delivered by community water systems. There are water quality standards and monitoring requirements for over 90 contaminants. Drinking water protection programs play a critical role in ensuring high quality drinking water and in protecting the public's health. Contaminants in drinking water have the potential to affect many people, because people drink and use water every day. The number of people served by a community water system varies from 25 to hundreds of thousands. Community water systems in the U.S. provide among the highest quality drinking water in the world. However, some contaminants are present at low levels, and there is a possibility that drinking water can become contaminated at higher levels. If a person is exposed to a high enough level of a contaminant, they may become ill. Effects can be short-term or long-term and depend on the specific contaminant, the level of contaminant in the water, and the person's individual susceptibility. As additional information is obtained about how specific contaminants affect public health, standards may change in order to better protect public health. The purpose of this Indicator Report is to show how many people drink water that have regulations on contaminant levels to reduce health-risks. The proportion of the population served by regulated community water supplies provides a measure of the estimated proportion of people in the state who are served by water that is being monitored for public health protection.