The widespread and unjust drinking water and clean water crisis in the United States

Abstract

Abstract Many households in the United States face issues of incomplete plumbing and poor water quality. Prior scholarship on this issue has focused on one dimension of water hardship at a time, leaving the full picture incomplete. Here we begin to complete this picture by documenting incomplete plumbing and poor drinking water quality for the entire United States, as well as poor wastewater quality for the 39 states and territories where data is reliable. In doing so, we find evidence of a regionally-clustered, socially unequal household water crisis. Using data from the American Community Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency, we show there are 489,836 households lacking complete plumbing, 1,165 community water systems in Safe Drinking Water Act Serious Violation, and 9,457 Clean Water Act permittees in Significant Noncompliance. Further, elevated levels of water hardship are associated with rurality, poverty, indigeneity, education, and age—representing a nationwide environmental injustice.