We shouldn’t have to wonder “Who is responsible for my water?” We should know.
EPIC and its partners release a provisional national map of water service area boundaries. This data can help to improve the design and implementation of water and climate programs at the federal, state, and community level. Learn more by visiting the service area boundaries webpage.
The 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure that our nation’s water resources are managed to advance environmental, health, equity, justice, and climate goals. We need the data to help design and implement this landmark program, including an accurate representation of water service area boundaries.
These are just a few of the countless uses for a publicly available map of water service areas.
We shouldn’t have to wonder “Who is responsible for my water?” We should know.
There are nearly 50,000 community water systems in the United States that serve 90 percent of the population. Despite the importance of water to health, safety, economic mobility, and overall well being, we do not have a comprehensive, accurate map of who those systems serve. In a March blog post on service area boundaries, we discussed the patchwork availability of service area boundary data and that most water systems lack accessible boundary data entirely. By contrast, we have maps of every public and private building in the United States. We have maps of national park boundaries. We even have maps of the entire electrical grid or all the primary and secondary roads across the US. Public or private.
We need this data for water. Without accurate water service area boundaries:
Individuals cannot easily determine who is responsible for the water they drink at home, at work, at school, or at play. As a result, individuals struggle to determine what contaminants are present in their water, or what is being done to protect the water. They may miss out on important health notices, opportunities to participate in rebates, or other incentive programs.
Communities across the country are designing and implementing water programs to get the lead out, ensure water access, develop rate structures that address equity and affordability, and to become more resilient in the face of climate change and disaster recovery. Water providers, city, county and tribal officials, and community organizations need to know service areas in order to ensure those programs are effective.
State agencies need service area boundaries in order to identify with precision which communities lack access to safe, reliable, and affordable drinking water, and to adequately understand and plan for drought or natural disaster scenarios.
Federal agencies will not have necessary information to ensure that funding programs - including the IIJA - consider social, economic, racial and ethnic demographics and advance Justice40 goals - the Biden Administration’s ‘promise to ensure that at least 40% of federal climate investments go directly to frontline communities most affected by poverty and pollution.’
Through policy and easy-to-use tools, we are establishing a national map that helps every person easily discover who is responsible for the water they drink at home, at work, at school, or at play.
In just three months, EPIC and SimpleLab, in consultation with the Internet of Water Coalition, developed an initial methodology for estimating water service area boundaries, created a provisional nationwide dataset, and met with over 100 interested parties to refine our approach and prioritize next steps. The map is not intended to be 100% accurate, rather, it is an approximation of service area boundaries and a starting point for the water community to improve upon through policy, tools, and engagement. We developed a three-tiered method to guide accuracy and improvements to the data. As of April 15, 2022, here’s a snapshot of where we are:
Tier 1: State Supplied Boundaries - 12 states have water service boundaries for more than 14,000 water systems, serving 122 million people; these datasets are incorporated into the national map, with two more states on the way.
Tier 2: Assigned Municipal Boundaries - ~19,000 water system boundaries are estimated by tying the address of the system to a census place boundary. 36 states have mostly Tier 2 boundaries and we also assigned census boundaries to 167 tribal water systems.
Tier 3, Estimated Boundaries - 10,000 water system boundaries are estimated by a circle around a point; 3 states have mostly Tier 3 boundaries and we also estimated circular boundaries for 166 tribal water systems.
A note about tribal systems: There are no Tier 1 tribal boundaries in this first map because we only accessed tier 1 data from US states. Some tribal water systems do have boundary data that we hope to include as we improve the map.
For more information about how we developed this map and the methodology with SimpleLab, you can find a summary in SimpleLab’s blog and an in-depth discussion of methods and code used via this open-source repository on GitHub. Visit HydroShare to download the provisional national dataset. This graphic (left) shows an overview of the three tiered approach to creating the national map approximates service areas in order of decreasing confidence. We are most confident in the boundaries provided directly by state regulators and least confident in the systems approximated by a simple circle.
We invite you to use this map and search for the communities that you know well, and consider this question: if this took us three months, imagine what might be possible in a year? Federal, state, and local partners can all help to improve this foundational data set.
If you are involved in federal policy: Over the summer, EPIC will host a series of conversations that bring together federal water agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, Council of Environmental Quality, and the US Digital Service to discuss ways that federal agencies can use this data as well as support state and local partners to develop and publish more accurate water service area boundaries. Contact us if you would like to follow or participate in that conversation.
If you are involved in state policy: EPIC will also look more closely at some of the Tier 1 states – i.e. states that are already making accurate water service area boundaries available online - to better understand their process. This could inform a working paper or policy recommendations and funding opportunities for state agencies to develop this data. We will also continue dialogues with states that do not yet have publicly available service area boundaries to better address the barriers to creating and maintaining these data. Contact us if you have insights or ideas about the role of states in creating water service area boundaries.
If you are working on water and climate in your community: Stay tuned - in the fall, the Internet of Water Coalition will release a tool to help communities get a better picture of their service area boundaries and develop shape files that can be shared with residents, partners, regulators, and others. Contact us if you would like to learn more about this tool.
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The Environmental Policy Innovation Center believes that technology can accelerate environmental progress and promote equity. To realize this promise, government agencies need the right people, policies, processes, and tools to solve environmental challenges. Water Service Area Boundaries are just one of these tools.
The Environmental Policy Innovation Center built a technology program to help government agencies who want to work at the cross-section of environmental outcomes and innovation. With our partners, we work to:
Strengthen government’s capacity to develop or use technology;
Improve technology policies and processes to accelerate environmental solutions, center community experience, and encourage co-creation processes; and
Create data and tools that enable community engagement.