A New Database Offers Insights Into Municipal Drinking Water Systems

Comprehensive understanding of drinking water systems is challenged by both the vast number and type of drinking water service providers in the US and the lack of easily comparable data outside of drinking water system performance (e.g., population characteristics, environmental conditions). This is because data are often collected and housed by different groups at different scales and time intervals. For example, the U.S. EPA collects information about water system performance from drinking water systems (e.g., source water, treatment violations) each month while the U.S. Census collects demographic information (e.g., income, race, education) useful for understanding the population served by drinking water systems at a different scale (e.g., block group or Census tract) annually and every ten years. Environmental data such as temperature and precipitation useful for understanding environmental conditions that may affect water supplies are often collected at finer temporal scales but often over larger geographic scales. The lack of comprehensive drinking water data makes it difficult for researchers, decision-makers, and practitioners to conduct meaningful analyses and identify important trends and patterns.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [A New Database Offers Insights Into Municipal Drinking Water Systems. American Water Works Association 116, 3 p58-59 (2024)], which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2249. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/self-archiving.html#3.