Is your tap water safe to drink?
Every US utility reports to the same federal system, and almost nobody reads it. Here is the compliance record for 30 cities — the utility, the population it serves, where the water comes from, and every violation with the contaminant named.
Cities
30
largest utility in each
With health-based citations
13
named on their page
With a clean record
2
nothing reported — not the same as clean
| City | Utility | People served | Source | Violations | Health-based |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | NEW YORK CITY SYSTEM | 8,271,000 | surface water | 10 | 1 |
| Los Angeles, CA | LOS ANGELES-CITY, DEPT. OF WATER & POWER | 3,875,566 | surface water | 4 | 2 |
| Houston, TX | CITY OF HOUSTON | 2,970,543 | surface water | 3 | 1 |
| Chicago, IL | CHICAGO | 2,721,308 | surface water | 49 | 1 |
| San Antonio, TX | SAN ANTONIO WATER SYSTEM | 2,643,729 | surface water | 4 | 0 |
| Boston, MA | MWRA | 2,580,000 | surface water | 0 | 0 |
| Miami, FL | MDWASA - MAIN SYSTEM | 2,377,460 | groundwater | 7 | 0 |
| Phoenix, AZ | PHOENIX CITY OF | 1,695,000 | surface water | 5 | 1 |
| Philadelphia, PA | PHILADELPHIA WATER DEPARTMENT | 1,600,000 | surface water | 9 | 0 |
| Baltimore, MD | CITY OF BALTIMORE | 1,600,000 | surface water | 34 | 4 |
| Las Vegas, NV | LAS VEGAS VALLEY WATER DISTRICT | 1,539,277 | surface water | 33 | 0 |
| San Diego, CA | SAN DIEGO, CITY OF | 1,385,379 | surface water | 12 | 0 |
| Dallas, TX | DALLAS WATER UTILITY | 1,356,479 | surface water | 1 | 0 |
| Columbus, OH | COLUMBUS PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM | 1,305,946 | surface water | 2 | 1 |
| Denver, CO | DENVER WATER BOARD | 1,287,000 | surface water | 128 | 0 |
| Charlotte, NC | CHARLOTTE WATER | 1,163,701 | surface water | 1 | 0 |
| Seattle, WA | SEATTLE PUBLIC UTILITIES | 1,161,961 | surface water | 1 | 1 |
| Austin, TX | CITY OF AUSTIN WATER & WASTEWATER | 1,115,323 | surface water | 6 | 5 |
| Atlanta, GA | ATLANTA | 1,089,893 | surface water | 13 | 5 |
| Fort Worth, TX | CITY OF FORT WORTH | 955,900 | surface water | 3 | 1 |
| Indianapolis, IN | CITIZENS WATER - INDIANAPOLIS | 880,345 | surface water | 1 | 0 |
| Nashville, TN | METRO WATER SERVICES | 778,153 | surface water | 3 | 0 |
| El Paso, TX | EL PASO WATER UTILITIES | 747,168 | surface water | 54 | 0 |
| Tucson, AZ | TUCSON CITY OF | 732,906 | groundwater | 164 | 0 |
| Portland, OR | PORTLAND WATER BUREAU | 666,200 | surface water | 2 | 1 |
| Memphis, TN | MEMPHIS LIGHT, GAS, & WATER | 659,500 | groundwater | 1 | 0 |
| Detroit, MI | DETROIT CITY OF | 633,218 | surface water | 1 | 0 |
| Milwaukee, WI | MILWAUKEE WATERWORKS | 626,000 | surface water | 4 | 0 |
| Kansas City, MO | KANSAS CITY PWS | 553,295 | surface water | 4 | 1 |
| Sacramento, CA | CITY OF SACRAMENTO MAIN | 527,979 | surface water | 0 | 0 |
A zero in that last column is not a clean bill of health
It means no health-based violation has been reported for that utility. It is a compliance record, not a water test, and it says nothing at all about the pipe between the water main and your kitchen — which is where lead usually enters. Treat a clean record as an absence of red flags, not as evidence.
Source: US EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System, retrieved 2026-08-31 from data.epa.gov. Each city shows the largest community water system serving it, identified by its EPA public water system ID.