About

(Dis)closing the Water Gap is a joint project of DigDeep, a human rights nonprofit organization dedicated to providing clean, running water to every person across America; Matrix, a digital humanities and social sciences center at Michigan State University; and scholars with expertise in water data. The purpose of the site is to bring together data about water insecurity in the United States in an easy-to-use and understandable format. We are also building an archive of news stories, reports, and interviews to help augment data and, in some cases, force us to think more about the accuracy of the data.

Our hope is that users—from policy makers to the public—can use the information to take action to solve water access problems. If you have suggestions regarding things to include, how to make the data more accessible and understandable, or news and stories, please contact us.

Below is a full list of data included in the site, more background, and more information about the partners and people responsible for the site.

How We Sourced Our Data

Our data is drawn from three sources:

  • U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS)
  • Clean Water Act (CWA) National Pollution Discharge Elimination Permit (NPDES)
  • Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Public Water System

The American Community Survey (ACS) provides estimates at multiple geographic units from national estimates to state, region, county, Census tract, block group, ZCTA (an approximation of Zip Code), and designated place (including incorporated villages, towns, and cities). Given that the estimate is based on a sample of roughly 3 percent of U.S. households, the margins of error can be significant. The ACS strengthens the estimates using 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year rolling averages – the latter giving the most accurate estimate. We organize this data at the county level, so we have data at the same unit of analysis as for the other datasets we will be using.

Although the ACS calculates estimates of occupied households lacking "complete plumbing facilities" down to the Census "block group" level — a level that estimates the rough size and population of a city block, but geographically dispersed across the United States –the accuracy of the estimate, especially in rural geographies, is questionable. At the block group, the estimated error is almost always greater than the actual estimated figure at the block group level. We follow scholars who use county-level data (Gasteyer & Mueller 2021) to try to connect across datasets, specifically the most local political spatial unit at which the EPA Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act violation data is available.

We use the ACS data regarding access to complete plumbing facilities (whether occupied homes have running water such as hot and cold running water from a sink and bathing facilities), level of poverty, median household income, and race/ethnicity. At the national, state, county, and city level, we include both the population of occupied household units that lack access to complete plumbing facilities. This is calculated by subtracting the population with access to complete plumbing facilities from the total number of occupied housing units. We also give a percentage by dividing total OHUs/OHU with access to complete plumbing.

We display Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) violation and Clean Water Act (CWA) violation data through the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database, which was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2002 to “provide a place for members of the public to search for facilities in their community and review the facility's compliance with environmental regulations” (EPA 2024c). ECHO data reports on violations of water quality but doesn't reflect communities where people lack access to water and sanitation. ECHO can be used to investigate a range of environmental compliance issues including air quality, hazardous waste, water quality, and drinking water system compliance with regulations. The ECHO database can be used to identify communities where wastewater and water utilities are persistently out of compliance with regulations. These regulations fall under two categories: those developed as part of the Clean Water Act of 1972 and those that fall under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, specifically the violations listed under the 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. We use SDWA to tabulate how many public water systems and community water systems there are in a state or county, how many are in violation regulations, the percent and number that have violated maximum contaminant level MCL regulations (which indicate threats to public health), and how many consider serious violators (in other words, with violations that may indicate a persistent or extreme problem). The EPA has used a numeric system to calculate the severity of public water system violations, and those with score of greater than 11 are considered systems of concern. We note how many of those systems there are in a given county, state, and the US as a whole.

The Clean Water Act of 1972 sought to address badly impaired water quality in the U.S. in the early 1970s, by which time waterways were so impaired that fish kills, harmful algae blooms, and severe contamination were chronic. In response, the U.S. Congress established an office in the EPA, (which itself had been established just two years before in 1970) charged with implementing the CWA, and making the waters of the United States “swimmable, fishable, and drinkable.” The mechanism to do this was requiring permits under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) from all entities that were discharging into waterways, including wastewater facilities and industry.

NPDES violations are now reported through ECHO, including a marker of significant non-compliance for facilities that have repeatedly failed to comply with NPDES standards. Mueller and Gasteyer (2021) and Fedinick, et al. (2019), among others, have used the listing of NPDES violations to indicate communities exposed to inadequate water quality. ECHO data on NPDES violations, however, currently do not specify which violations contaminate drinking water, especially for people on self-supply wells (EPA 2024a).

You can download a copy of out data documentation here.

Background

Those who work in the water sector hear anecdotes about communities across the United States and its territories that lack functional access to water and sanitation. Where are these communities? Could we identify them and begin the process of finding solutions? Identifying where the communities are has been hampered by a disjointed reporting system, an artifact of decades of piecemeal legislation that separated household infrastructure from water quality data.

This initiative puts U.S. Census data on household access to complete plumbing, Safe Drinking Water Act data on public water systems and violations, and Clean Water Act violations into one place, spatially organized at the county level so that those who want to understand and improve water and sanitation access (at the community, regional, or national level) can identify places in need over time, tell their stories, and develop strategies to address problems. Honestly, we know that data on access to water and sanitation in the United States is partial and may not always be accurate. It is our hope that this dashboard will facilitate better communication when data does not always accurately depict water issues.

The project seeks to inform and inspire action by illustrating how systemic issues such as poverty and infrastructure gaps intersect with personal experiences. Through this blend of data and storytelling, we aim to drive meaningful change in the movement to close the water gap.

This data/stories dashboard is the result of a partnership between DigDeep and scholars at Michigan State University to demonstrate the power of bringing various data sets together into one platform to highlight the gaps in data about water and sanitation access across the U.S.

Project Team

DigDeep is a human rights nonprofit organization dedicated to providing clean, running water to every person across America, particularly focusing on communities that have been historically overlooked. Our mission is to close the water access gap in the United States, where over two million people still live without access to safe water and sanitation. We believe access to clean water is a basic human right, essential for dignity, health, and opportunity.

Through innovative, community-led projects, DigDeep works hand-in-hand with Indigenous, rural, and low-income communities to design and build sustainable water systems. Our flagship programs, like the Navajo Water Project, provide immediate relief and long-term solutions by installing home water systems and educating families about water conservation.

We envision a future in which every person, regardless of their location or background, has reliable access to safe water. Join us in creating a world where no one is left behind.

To this end, this DigDeep project merges data-driven insights with human narratives to shed light on the complex issue of water insecurity in America. By combining statistics on water access with personal stories from individuals and communities, we aim to present a holistic view of the water crisis.

Our approach highlights the harsh realities that millions of Americans face without access to safe, clean drinking water. Using interactive maps, data visualizations, and in-depth profiles, we connect numbers with the real-life struggles behind them. Each data point is accompanied by stories from Indigenous, rural, and underserved communities, amplifying the voices of those directly impacted.

Founded in 1997, Matrix: Center for Digital Humanities & Social Sciences is an internationally respected research center at Michigan State University. The center works with museums, libraries, archives, and world heritage sites to digitize, preserve, and provide access to cultural and historical materials. Matrix collaborates with scholars, practitioners, educators, institutions, and local community members to create tools and digital experiences that engage researchers, students, and the public in critical questions about our collective heritage. Matrix builds software, sites, and services that enable meaningful analysis and interpretation of cultural data and content in new and innovative ways. They work to build digital skills and capacity among students and scholars, as well as critical technical infrastructures for communities and institutions.

This project has been made possible by contributions from the following individuals…

  • Stephen Gasteyer, Associate Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University
  • Kimberly Lemme, Executive Director, DigDeep Labs
  • Dean Rebherger, Public Projects Coordinator, Matrix, Michigan State University
  • Autumn Bland, Research Assistant, Michigan State University
  • Joshua Christ, Software Developer, Matrix, Michigan State University
  • Anthony D'Onofrio, Software Developer, Matrix, Michigan State University
  • Lorenzo Duran Charris, Research Assistant, Matrix, Michigan State University
  • Catherine Foley, Project Manager, Matrix, Michigan State University
  • Jeffrey Goeke-Smith, Systems Administrator, Matrix, Michigan State University
  • Shelby Kinlichee, Officer, Monitoring & Evaluation, DigDeep Labs
  • Leticia Marques, Project Monitoring Officer, DigDeep Labs
  • Tom Mueller, Assistant Professor, Population Health, University of Kansas Medical Center
  • Ann Rogers, Manager, Monitoring & Evaluation, DigDeep Labs
  • Alicia Sheill, Project Manager, Matrix, Michigan State University

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