It’s well known that people in vulnerable communities tend to be more exposed to poorer environmental conditions. Research from the University of Texas in Austin finds that this also extends to poorer water quality. The study found a clear link between social vulnerability and drinking water quality violations.

The study used data about water quality and who’s affected by it, looking at where people actually get their water, not just the lines on a map. They also used a new way to figure out which communities might have a harder time dealing with water problems. This new method shows that more than three times as many people are affected by water issues than what the government thought.

Variable quality

Even though most Americans have safe drinking water, about one in ten had problems with their water quality between 2018 and 2020. The United States is finding it increasingly tough to provide good water because the pipes and systems are getting old and aren’t getting enough money to be fixed.

The main reasons for water quality problems in community water systems are the chemicals used to clean the water and things that naturally occur in it, like arsenic. There are also issues caused by things people put into the water, like nitrates.

In the past, when researchers tried to see who was most affected by bad water, they had a hard time because they only looked at data based on state lines and used things like how much money people make as a way to tell who’s vulnerable.

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The study did things differently. It looked at data from water systems all across the country and used a better measure of who might be at risk, called the mSVI (modified Social Vulnerability Index). This new way of looking at things found that more people were affected than just looking at their income.

The government wants to give money to fix drinking water systems, and they say that more than 49% of that money should go to communities that are disadvantaged. But what counts as a disadvantaged community varies a lot from state to state. The study suggests that we should think about disadvantaged communities in a broader way, not just based on income, because the mSVI measure shows that more people are affected when we do it that way.

“Our detailed analysis of the linkages of drinking water quality violations to social vulnerability can help inform guidance for effectively distributing infrastructure funding and designing interventions to ensure more equitable drinking water quality nationally,” the authors conclude.