About two million individuals in the United States do not have access to running water or indoor plumbing in their residences. Additionally, around 30 million people reside in areas where drinking water systems fail to meet safety standards. Water privatization, which involves transferring the ownership and/or management of public water systems to private entities, has been suggested as a possible way to ensure that more Americans receive safe and clean drinking water. However, critics contend that private companies might prioritize profit over the needs of the public.
To explore the impact of private versus public water systems on water quality and equitable access to safe drinking water, researchers conducted a nationwide mapping of water system ownership, violations, and instances of water injustice. Their findings were published in the journal Risk Analysis. This study is the first to combine geospatial mapping of water violations, social vulnerability, and, crucially, perceptions of water access concerning the ownership of water systems on a national level.
“Policymakers can utilize our results to pinpoint and prioritize enforcement actions in critical areas, enhance infrastructure, and enact policies that guarantee affordable and safe drinking water, especially for socially vulnerable populations,” stated lead author Alex Segrè Cohen, an assistant professor of science and risk communication at the University of Oregon. “Our research indicates that violations and risks related to water injustice tend to concentrate in specific regions or hotspots throughout the country.”
Key findings include:
- The ten counties with the highest rates of water violations were located in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
- The highest number of violations reported by a single water system occurred in a public system managed by a local government in Wyoming County, West Virginia.
- Eight out of the ten counties with the most significant water injustice were in Mississippi, with others in South Dakota and Texas.
- Areas with higher water injustice were frequently found in regions with lower private system ownership, suggesting that public water systems do not necessarily excel at preventing violations, according to the authors.
- Residing in a county characterized by both high water injustice and a larger proportion of privatized water systems correlated with increased concerns regarding water access and security, including worries about accessibility, safety, and reliability.
Water system violations encompass failures to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations, which include health-related violations such as exceeding maximum contaminant levels, not adhering to mandated water treatment methods, and failing to follow monitoring schedules or communicate necessary information to consumers.
The researchers define water injustice as the disproportionate lack of access to safe and clean drinking water that primarily affects low-income households and communities of color.
They created a county-level score reflecting the performance of local drinking water systems, utilizing data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) and community social vulnerability metrics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Environmental Justice Index. This data was integrated with a nationally representative survey of U.S. residents conducted in 2019, which assessed how individuals rated their access to drinking water, the quality and reliability of local water systems, and other indicators of water injustice.
“Our findings indicate that privatization alone does not resolve the issue,” remarked Segrè Cohen. “Local factors, such as regulatory enforcement, community vulnerability, and priorities, play a crucial role in determining outcomes.”
Source: The Society for Risk Analysis
