What's actually in my tap water?
Every public water system reports its violations to EPA. This shows you that record for 12,900+ US systems serving 2,000 or more people, straight from EPA's SDWIS data. Free, no email.
Read this before you rely on it
This is your utility's EPA record, not a substitute for a certified lab test of your own tap. Water quality can change between the utility's meter and your faucet, from plumbing this data cannot see. Testing frequency isn't equal either: EPA requires more frequent monitoring as population served rises, so a clean record on a small system reflects fewer tests than the same record on a large one, not a guarantee the water is the same. It's the question before that one: has this system had a violation, what kind, and is it still open.
- No violations on record
- Nothing flagged in EPA's SDWIS data — reflects what was tested, not a guarantee.
- Reporting violation only
- A monitoring or paperwork lapse, not a contaminant finding.
- Past violation
- A health-based violation exists, none in the last 5 years.
- Recent violation
- A health-based violation within the last 5 years.
- Unresolved violation
- EPA's record still lists a health-based violation as unaddressed.
What each looks like on a real system
The question this site answers
Every public water system has to report its testing and violations to its state and to EPA. DrinkingWaterCheck makes that record searchable, system by system, instead of buried in EPA's own ECHO interface - what's been flagged, whether it's an open problem or a closed one, and what kind of filter actually addresses it if you want to act on it.
Scope: community systems serving 2,000 or more people
This covers 12,903 active community water systems, the ones serving the same population year-round, at or above 2,000 people served. 9,233 have at least one health-based violation on record; 391 currently show one as unresolved. Smaller systems and non-community systems (a single business or campground on its own well) aren't covered yet.
A status, not a score
EPA doesn't publish one composite safety number, and inventing one would be a guess dressed up as data. So every page here reports a status instead: is there an unresolved violation, a recent one, an old one, or none on record, plus which concern category it falls into if there is one.
Start with your water system
Search or browse to your utility to see its violation history and what it actually means for your water.