Methodology
Findings come from credible public sources: federal and state records, utility notices, health advisories, permits, enforcement and court records, public meetings, project documents and original local reporting. Each finding is deduplicated, scored and kept under a stable ID across monthly runs.
What counts as a water issue
A material problem involving drinking-water contamination or treatment failure, shortage or unreliable supply, failing infrastructure, wastewater and sewer overflows, stormwater and repeated flooding, groundwater depletion or contamination, degraded watersheds, agricultural or industrial water conflicts, affordability and shutoffs, tribal water access, governance failures, or water-rights disputes. Environmental stories with no material effect on water are excluded.
Severity score (0–10)
Each finding is scored on five components from 0 to 2. Every point must rest on cited evidence. Missing data earns no points, and mixed evidence takes the lower supported score.
| Component | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health or environmental harm | None documented | Plausible or localized | Confirmed, acute, widespread or long-lasting |
| Essential-service impact | None | Limited or short-lived | Major, prolonged, or affecting safe water, sanitation or flood protection |
| Population or geographic scale | Minor or unknown | Material local impact | Large population, multi-community, multi-state, tribal, basin-wide or nationally significant |
| Duration or persistence | Isolated or resolved | Ongoing or recurring | Prolonged, escalating or repeatedly unresolved |
| Regulatory, infrastructure or financial significance | Narrow, no formal action | Official response or material asset/funding concern | Emergency declaration, major enforcement, consent decree, system failure, closure or severe funding gap |
Critical 9–10 High 7–8 Moderate 4–6 Low 0–3
The site calculates each level from the component scores, so a level always matches its breakdown. Findings are ranked within their category. Recency only breaks ties.
Primary issue layer
Each finding gets exactly one primary layer, a one-sentence rationale, and any secondary drivers.
Utility finances and business-model risk
Utility findings are checked for systemic signals such as defaults, receivership, thin cash reserves, collection shortfalls, deferred capital, rate instability and household burden. Confirmed insolvency, bankruptcy, default or receivership is labeled separately from broader fiscal or operational stress. Risk levels are Severe, Elevated, Watch, Not Indicated and Unknown.
Quantitative evidence
- Reported: the source's own figure, cited.
- Estimated: simple arithmetic on compatible sourced figures, with the conversion shown.
- Not reported: used instead of guessing.
- When credible sources conflict, the site shows both figures and explains the difference.
Trends and projections
Trend direction (worsening, improving, stable, volatile or mixed) comes from comparable dated history. A projection is an analyst's judgment, not a fact. It appears only when enough history exists, and it always states a time horizon, evidence, assumptions, a confidence level and what would reverse it. Otherwise the finding reads Insufficient History.
Source standards
Original and authoritative sources come first: federal agencies, state regulators, tribal governments, utilities and districts, and official records such as permits, enforcement actions, consent decrees, court filings, budgets and meeting materials. Original local reporting is next. Every finding carries at least one dated, direct source link. Critical findings use several independent sources where they exist.
Monthly continuity
Each run matches new evidence to existing finding IDs before creating new ones. Changes are logged as new, changed, escalated, de-escalated, resolved, reopened or unchanged. Earlier sourced values and statuses are never erased. Changes are appended with dates, and corrections are published on the Changes & Coverage page.
Data access
The findings are published as JSON at /api/water/feed. Filtered records are at /api/water/issues (parameters: category, layer, level, state, status, business_model_risk, trend, min_score, q), single findings at /api/water/issues/<id>, and run-level counts at /api/water/summary. Changes are at /api/water/changes?since=YYYY-MM-DD and past runs at /api/water/runs. The latest full report is /reports/latest.pdf.
Limits
This is a ranking of discoverable, reported or officially documented issues, not a census of every U.S. water problem. Low coverage or missing public records do not prove that an issue is absent. Each run's limitations are listed on the Coverage page.