Water supply and sanitation in the United States

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Water supply and sanitation in the United States is provided by towns and cities, public utilities that span several jurisdictions and rural cooperatives. About 15 million Americans are served by their own wells. Public water supply and sanitation systems are regulated by state-level regulatory commissions and the EPA. Water consumption in the U.S. is one of the highest in the world and water tariffs (rates) are among the lowest in developed countries. There is a massive need to replace ageing water and sanitation infrastructure that may require much higher water tariffs in the future.

This article is part of a series of articles describing water and sanitation in various countries around the world using the same categories to facilitate comparison. For more details see the links to articles on other countries in the section "see also".

Contents 1 Access 2 Water use 3 Water sources 4 Service quality 5 Responsibility for water supply and sanitation 5.1 Service provision 5.2 Regulation 6 Rates 7 Financing and Investment 7.1 Financing 7.2 Investment 8 See also 9 Notes 10 External links 11 Comments

[edit] Access

Access to improved water supply and sanitation in the United States is universal. However, access to improved sanitation is provided through different technologies depending on local circumstances. 83% of households are served by sewers (95% in urban areas and 33% in rural areas) and the remainder is served by on-site sanitation systems such as septic tanks.^[1]

[edit] Water use

According to a 1999 study by the AWWA Research Foundation residential end use of water in the United States is equivalent to more than 1 billion glasses of tap water per day.^[2] According to the same study 58% of water is used outdoors (gardening, swimming pools) and 42% indoors. Other sources indicate that outdoor use is only 25% of total residential water use.^[3].

Daily indoor per capita water use in a typical single family home is 69.3 gallons (260 litres). Overall use falls into the following categories:

• body cleanliness:
  • Toilets - 26.7%
  • Baths - 1.7%
  • Showers - 16.8%
• washing:
  • Clothes Washers - 21.7%
  • Dishwashers - 1.4%
• Faucets - 15.7%
• Leaks - 12.7%
• Other Domestic Uses - 2.2%

These figures do not include water use in offices and commercial establishments, which is significant. Overall, per capital water use in the United States is about twice as high as in Europe (see Water supply and sanitation in France#water use, Public water supply and sanitation in Germany#water use and Water supply and sanitation in the United Kingdom#water use and sources).

[edit] Water sources

About 90% of public water systems in the U.S. obtain their water from groundwater. However, since systems served by groundwater tend to be much smaller than systems served by surface water, only 34% of Americans (101m) are supplied with treated groundwater, while 66% (195m) are supplied with treated surface water.^[4]

Few U.S. cities pump water from sources clean enough not to require filtration plants (see water purification). The major exceptions are New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon.^[5] These cities have water sources with a high degree of natural purity. New York City's water supply, for example, is fed by a 2,000 square mile watershed in the Catskill Mountains. Because the watershed is in one of the largest protected wilderness areas in the United States, the natural water filtration process remains intact and filtration plants are unnecessary.^[6]

[edit] Service quality

There seems to be no comprehensive source of information on water supply and sanitaiton service quality in the United States. However, in almost all cases water supply is continuous, under good pressure and in conformity with the norms of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Sanitation service quality is mixed, and sewer backflows into homes as well as combined sewer overflows into creeks and streams remain a problem. Wastewater treatment plants are operated satisfactorily in most cases. Discharges of wastewater are governed by the Clean Water Act.

[edit] Responsibility for water supply and sanitation

[edit] Service provision

According to EPA's community water system survey 2000 there are about 54,000 community public water systems in the United States. ^[7] In urban areas, these systems are either managed directly by towns and cities (such as in New York City) or indirectly by water companies (public utilities) owned by towns, cities and counties. In some cases public utilities span several jurisdictions, such as in the form of special-purpose districts. Utility cooperatives are a major provider of water and sanitation services, especially in rural areas ^[8] Privately owned water supply and sanitation utilities operating under concessions by local jurisdictions are rare in the United States.

There are also a few large bulk water suppliers in the arid Southwest of the United States. One of them is the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) which sells treated water from the Colorado River and Northern California to its member utilities in Southern California through the California Aqueduct. 26 cities and water districts serving 18 million people are members of MWD. Another example is the Central Arizona Water Conservation district which operates the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct (CAP) which supplies water from the Colorado River to 80 municipal, industrial, agricultural and Indian customers in Central and Southern Arizona.

Approximately 15% of Americans rely on their own wells as a source of drinking water. Water from these wells is not subject to regulation by the EPA. ^[9]

[edit] Regulation

The economic regulation of water and sanitation service providers in the U.S. (in particular in relation to the setting of user water rates) is usually the responsibility of regulators such as Public Utility Commissions at the state level (see economic regulator). The environmental and drinking water quality regulation is the responsibility of the EPA.

[edit] Rates

Water rates (sometimes also called tariffs or user fees) in the United States are among the lowest in OECD countries. On average water rates were only $0.50 per cubic meter ($1.89 per 1,000 gallons) in 1999. ^[10] However, due to higher water consumption in the US water bills are about the same level as in most other OECD countries.

The average American family spends $474 each year on water and sewerage charges according to the EPA ^[11]. This is about the same level as in some European countries (see Water supply and sanitation in France#costs and Water supply and sanitation in the United Kingdom#tariffs).

Concerning rate structures, about one third of water rates are linear (the unit rate is independent of the level of consumption), one third are increasing-block rates (the unit rate increases with consumption) and one third are decreasing-block tariffs (the unit rate decreases with consumption). Decreasing-block rates offer hardly any incentive for water conservation. ^[12]

[edit] Financing and Investment

[edit] Financing

Financing is provided through revenues from user fees (see above), debt and grants. Most debt contracted by utilities is commercial debt, usually in the form of bonds, in particular tax-free municipal bonds. In the past substantial federal grants and other subsidies have been provided, in particular to introduce wastewater treatment in order to comply with the Clean Water Act. In rural areas, the United States Department of Agriculture provides grants, loans and loan guarantees for water supply and sanitation in small communities (those with less than 10,000 inhabitants), in addition to technical assistance and training.^[13] The EPA and states administrate the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Program that has provided nearly $9.5 billion of low-interest loans for water supply and sanitation between 1997 and 2005, directed mainly at small communities.

[edit] Investment

The American Waterworks Association (AWWA) estimates that it will cost between $280 and $400 billion to replace the country's ageing water infrastructure.^[14] The EPA estimated in its Second Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey that $150 billion would have to be invested over a 20-year period in water supply systems alone (without sanitation) to ensure clean and safe drinking water.^[15]. EPA's clean and drinking water infrastructure gap analysis of 2002 showed that if present levels of spending do not increase, there would be a significant funding gap by 2019.

[edit] See also

• Water supply
• Sanitation
• Water supply and sanitation in France
• Public water supply and sanitation in Germany
• Water supply and sanitation in Mexico
• Water supply and sanitation in the United Kingdom
• Water supply and sanitation in Latin America

[edit] Notes

1. ^ WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program [1]
2. ^ American Waterworks Association Research Foundation (AWWARF), Residential End Uses of Water, 1999 at [2] The study covered 1,188 households in 14 cities over 3 years
3. ^ World Bank, International Trends in Water Pricing and Use, 2000 at Water Consumption in the United States (lcd)
4. ^ EPA, Water on Tap, 2003, op.cit., p.7 of [3])
5. ^ Committee to Review the New York City Watershed Management Strategy, National Research Council (2000). Watershed Management for Potable Water Supply: Assessing the New York City Strategy. The National Academies Press. ISBN 0309067774. 
6. ^ "2005 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report", City of New York Department of Environmental Protection. Retrieved on 2006-07-19.
7. ^ EPA 2003, op.cit., p.2 of [4]
8. ^ National Rural Water Association [5]and US Department of Agriculture [6]
9. ^ EPA 2003, op.cit., p. 18 of [7]
10. ^ World Bank, op.cit., 2000 at Water Prices, 1999 (USS/cubic meter)
11. ^ EPA 2003, op.cit., p. 11 of [8]
12. ^ World Bank, op.cit., 2000in Water Tariff Structures (As share of utilities)
13. ^ US Department of Agriculture [9]
14. ^ AWWA at[10]
15. ^ EPA 2003, op.cit., p.3 of [11]

[edit] External links

• Environmental Protection Agency Drinking Water Page - EPA
  
• American Waterworks Association (AWWA), the association of water supply professionals in the U.S. and Canada - AWWA
  
• Water Environment Federation (WEF), an association of professionals working on wastewater treatment and water quality protection -

WEF

• Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), the association of the largest publicly owned drinking water systems in the U.S. AMWA
• National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) -

NARUC

[edit] Comments

Please feel free to post comments on this article on its discussion page (by clicking on "discussion" above to the left of the "article" tab) or send them to Manuel Schiffler at mschiffler@verizon.net.