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States with the Fewest Drinking Water Violations

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All states ranked by fewest Safe Drinking Water Act violations, the cleanest drinking water compliance records.

What This Ranking Tells Us

States with the fewest water violations maintain the strongest compliance with federal drinking water standards. This can reflect well-funded water infrastructure, effective state regulatory programs, fewer challenging source water conditions, or smaller numbers of water systems. States with naturally pure source water (mountain states, northern states with glacial aquifers) often appear near the top. However, low violation counts can also indicate less rigorous monitoring rather than cleaner water.

This page ranks all 50 U.S. states and territories on a single indicator - violations - 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.

The top of the table is led by Guam with a reported value of 6, followed by U.S. Virgin Islands (18) and Hawaii (29). The bottom of the ranking ends with Missouri at 6,246, illustrating the spread across the federal record.

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.

States with the Fewest Drinking Water Violations: top 15

Ranked by violations - full table below

violations

What this shows Rankings reflect reported federal totals, shaped by each state's geography, industrial history and population, not a direct measure of health risk or water safety.

Source EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) As of most recent EPA release
#1 Guam 6 violations #2 U.S. Virgin Islands 18 violations #3 Hawaii 29 violations
# State Violations
1 Guam GU 6
2 U.S. Virgin Islands VI 18
3 Hawaii HI 29
4 District of Columbia DC 51
5 Delaware DE 158
6 Northern Mariana Islands MP 165
7 North Dakota ND 169
8 Rhode Island RI 186
9 American Samoa AS 278
10 Alabama AL 485
11 Maryland MD 506
12 South Carolina SC 647
13 Wyoming WY 713
14 Iowa IA 729
15 Connecticut CT 749
16 Maine ME 799
17 Minnesota MN 845
18 Nevada NV 970
19 Michigan MI 1,000
20 Vermont VT 1,090
21 Tennessee TN 1,091
22 Massachusetts MA 1,106
23 New Jersey NJ 1,109
24 South Dakota SD 1,192
25 Utah UT 1,200
26 Ohio OH 1,386
27 New Hampshire NH 1,402
28 Montana MT 1,430
29 Indiana IN 1,467
30 Kentucky KY 1,788
31 Mississippi MS 1,850
32 Virginia VA 1,855
33 Nebraska NE 2,160
34 Idaho ID 2,204
35 Wisconsin WI 2,233
36 West Virginia WV 2,371
37 Oregon OR 2,578
38 Georgia GA 2,663
39 Florida FL 2,676
40 Washington WA 2,705
41 North Carolina NC 2,788
42 Illinois IL 2,825
43 Puerto Rico PR 2,826
44 Kansas KS 3,784
45 Alaska AK 4,613
46 Arizona AZ 4,821
47 Pennsylvania PA 5,198
48 New York NY 5,270
49 Colorado CO 5,332
50 Arkansas AR 5,811
51 Missouri MO 6,246

Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS).

Frequently Asked Questions

Does fewest violations mean safest water?

Generally yes, but with caveats. Low violation counts usually indicate strong compliance and infrastructure investment. However, some states may have fewer monitored contaminants or less aggressive enforcement that results in fewer documented violations. The best indicator of safe water combines low violations with comprehensive monitoring.

What makes some states better at water compliance?

Key factors include adequate funding for water infrastructure, strong state environmental agencies, newer water treatment plants, favorable geology (naturally clean source water), and lower population density reducing demand on systems. States that invested heavily in infrastructure after the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act tend to perform well.

Explore More Rankings

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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 6 violations - 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

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Data sourced from U.S. EPA environmental datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainEnviro Editorial

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.