EPA rankings · EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) · updated August 2026
Fewest Water Violations by State
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Information System (most recent EPA release), states are ranked here lowest-first on health-based SDWIS violation records in PlainEnviro's extract. These are raw counts only, not a water-quality or safety score.
- #1 · Guam
- 12
- Leader
- Top-12 cutoff
- 720
- List threshold
- State median
- 1,444
- Cohort median
- states ranked
- 51
- Cohort coverage
The ranking, the verdict
Guam leads at 12 health-based records. The top-12 cutoff is 720 (#12), and the leader-to-tail spread is 6,725 across 51 states (median 1,444).
- 12
- #1 Guam
- 720
- top-12 list threshold
- 6,725
- lowest-to-highest spread
- most recent EPA release
- EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) vintage
Each position reflects one reported federal count, not overall environmental quality or water safety.
What This Ranking Tells Us
This table orders states by health-based SDWIS records joined to active community water systems, lowest first. Monitoring and reporting records are not in the extract. A low raw count can reflect fewer systems, and the totals are not adjusted for population, system count, duration, severity, or return-to-compliance status, so the table cannot determine which state has the cleanest or safest drinking water.
This page ranks all 50 U.S. states and territories on a single indicator - health-based records - drawn directly from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS). The ranking draws on 51 state records in the current dataset, ordered ascending (lowest count at the top) by the underlying federal count.
A state's position depends on underlying geography, industrial history, population, and the density of reporting entities, not on a simple "cleaner" or "dirtier" label. Use the links in the table to open each state's full environmental profile and view county-level breakdowns, individual facility records, and violation history. Data source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS). All figures are as-filed and not weighted for toxicity or exposure.
The bar to make the top 12
720 health-based records - where #12 sits among all 51 states
720 lbs Top 22% higher than 78% of 51 states
Each bar is a $1M-wide band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line and filled bar mark this facility. Hover, focus, or tap a bar for its full count, share, and position.
Source EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) · most recent EPA release
| # | State | Health-Based Records |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guam GU | 12 |
| 2 | Hawaii HI | 31 |
| 3 | District of Columbia DC | 38 |
| 4 | U.S. Virgin Islands VI | 108 |
| 5 | Delaware DE | 160 |
| 6 | Northern Mariana Islands MP | 168 |
| 7 | North Dakota ND | 185 |
| 8 | Rhode Island RI | 192 |
| 9 | American Samoa AS | 293 |
| 10 | Alabama AL | 538 |
| 11 | Maryland MD | 556 |
| 12 | South Carolina SC | 720 |
| 13 | Wyoming WY | 730 |
| 14 | Iowa IA | 742 |
| 15 | Connecticut CT | 801 |
| 16 | Maine ME | 832 |
| 17 | Nevada NV | 1,021 |
| 18 | Minnesota MN | 1,033 |
| 19 | Vermont VT | 1,111 |
| 20 | Michigan MI | 1,120 |
| 21 | Massachusetts MA | 1,140 |
| 22 | Utah UT | 1,172 |
| 23 | Tennessee TN | 1,192 |
| 24 | New Jersey NJ | 1,206 |
| 25 | South Dakota SD | 1,217 |
| 26 | New Hampshire NH | 1,444 |
| 27 | Ohio OH | 1,500 |
| 28 | Indiana IN | 1,514 |
| 29 | Montana MT | 1,604 |
| 30 | Kentucky KY | 1,864 |
| 31 | Virginia VA | 1,933 |
| 32 | Mississippi MS | 2,079 |
| 33 | Nebraska NE | 2,305 |
| 34 | Wisconsin WI | 2,317 |
| 35 | Idaho ID | 2,331 |
| 36 | West Virginia WV | 2,508 |
| 37 | Oregon OR | 2,683 |
| 38 | Florida FL | 2,736 |
| 39 | Georgia GA | 2,771 |
| 40 | Puerto Rico PR | 2,862 |
| 41 | Washington WA | 2,879 |
| 42 | Illinois IL | 3,029 |
| 43 | North Carolina NC | 3,120 |
| 44 | Kansas KS | 3,819 |
| 45 | Alaska AK | 4,843 |
| 46 | Arizona AZ | 5,259 |
| 47 | Pennsylvania PA | 5,292 |
| 48 | New York NY | 5,536 |
| 49 | Colorado CO | 5,561 |
| 50 | Arkansas AR | 5,952 |
| 51 | Missouri MO | 6,737 |
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS).
Top-ranked state profiles
Explore the environmental records behind the top positions in this ranking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does fewest health-based records mean safest water?
No. This table compares raw historical record counts, not water samples or a normalized safety score. A state can have fewer records because it has fewer active community systems. Check the utility's current Consumer Confidence Report for local drinking-water information.
What can affect a state's record count?
The number and size of active community systems, violation duration, infrastructure, source-water conditions, compliance performance, and return-to-compliance history can all affect the total. Those factors are not normalized in this ranking.
Explore More Rankings
What to do with this ranking
Use the leaders here as a starting point, then check your own state's full record.
- Guam tops this list at 12 health-based records - see its full environmental profile, not just this one metric. View Guam
- This single indicator doesn't capture the full picture. Compare against most tri facilities for a different angle. Most TRI Facilities
- Look up any state directly to see its complete facility, water, and Superfund record in one place. Browse all states
Rankings reflect reported federal data for a single indicator; a high or low rank does not by itself measure overall environmental quality or health risk.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this ranking is drawn from PlainEnviro's database of more than 25,000 EPA-tracked facilities and thousands of Safe Drinking Water Information System and Superfund National Priorities List records compiled since federal reporting began under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act in October 1986; see our methodology for the full data-source citations and refresh cadence.
Related
Every figure on PlainEnviro is rendered directly from EPA environmental compliance data, no number is typed in by an editor. Rankings are computed directly from EPA data. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.