EPA rankings · EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) · updated August 2026
Water Violations by State
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Information System (most recent EPA release), all states are ranked here by health-based drinking-water violation records in PlainEnviro's extract. Raw counts only, not normalized by population, system count, duration, or severity, and not a water-quality or safety score.
- #1 · Texas
- 35,693
- Leader
- Top-12 cutoff
- 4,843
- List threshold
- State median
- 1,933
- Cohort median
- states ranked
- 51
- Cohort coverage
The ranking, the verdict
Texas leads at 35,693 health-based records. The top-12 cutoff is 4,843 (#12), and the leader-to-tail spread is 35,525 across 51 states (median 1,933).
- 35,693
- #1 Texas
- 4,843
- top-12 list threshold
- 35,525
- leader-to-tail 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 counts only records from PlainEnviro's upstream health-based SDWIS extract that join to active community water systems. It excludes monitoring and reporting violations. The raw totals are not normalized by population, system count, duration, or severity, so they cannot by themselves determine whether a state's water is safe.
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 descending (highest 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
4,843 health-based records - where #12 sits among all 51 states
4.8K lbs 22nd percentile higher than 22% 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 | Texas TX | 35,693 |
| 2 | Oklahoma OK | 29,177 |
| 3 | California CA | 17,705 |
| 4 | Louisiana LA | 14,536 |
| 5 | New Mexico NM | 8,034 |
| 6 | Missouri MO | 6,737 |
| 7 | Arkansas AR | 5,952 |
| 8 | Colorado CO | 5,561 |
| 9 | New York NY | 5,536 |
| 10 | Pennsylvania PA | 5,292 |
| 11 | Arizona AZ | 5,259 |
| 12 | Alaska AK | 4,843 |
| 13 | Kansas KS | 3,819 |
| 14 | North Carolina NC | 3,120 |
| 15 | Illinois IL | 3,029 |
| 16 | Washington WA | 2,879 |
| 17 | Puerto Rico PR | 2,862 |
| 18 | Georgia GA | 2,771 |
| 19 | Florida FL | 2,736 |
| 20 | Oregon OR | 2,683 |
| 21 | West Virginia WV | 2,508 |
| 22 | Idaho ID | 2,331 |
| 23 | Wisconsin WI | 2,317 |
| 24 | Nebraska NE | 2,305 |
| 25 | Mississippi MS | 2,079 |
| 26 | Virginia VA | 1,933 |
| 27 | Kentucky KY | 1,864 |
| 28 | Montana MT | 1,604 |
| 29 | Indiana IN | 1,514 |
| 30 | Ohio OH | 1,500 |
| 31 | New Hampshire NH | 1,444 |
| 32 | South Dakota SD | 1,217 |
| 33 | New Jersey NJ | 1,206 |
| 34 | Tennessee TN | 1,192 |
| 35 | Utah UT | 1,172 |
| 36 | Massachusetts MA | 1,140 |
| 37 | Michigan MI | 1,120 |
| 38 | Vermont VT | 1,111 |
| 39 | Minnesota MN | 1,033 |
| 40 | Nevada NV | 1,021 |
| 41 | Maine ME | 832 |
| 42 | Connecticut CT | 801 |
| 43 | Iowa IA | 742 |
| 44 | Wyoming WY | 730 |
| 45 | South Carolina SC | 720 |
| 46 | Maryland MD | 556 |
| 47 | Alabama AL | 538 |
| 48 | American Samoa AS | 293 |
| 49 | Rhode Island RI | 192 |
| 50 | North Dakota ND | 185 |
| 51 | Northern Mariana Islands MP | 168 |
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
What does this table count?
It counts EPA SDWIS records flagged as health-based that belong to active community water systems in PlainEnviro's current extract. Monitoring and reporting records are not present in this extract.
Are states with more records more dangerous?
Not necessarily. States with more systems have more opportunities for records, and this table does not normalize for population, system count, violation duration, severity, or whether a historical violation has returned to compliance.
What happens when a water system has a violation?
Systems must notify consumers, often through public notices or boil-water advisories. The state enforces corrective actions, which can include fines, mandatory treatment upgrades, or operational changes. Persistent violators may face federal enforcement actions from the EPA.
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.
- Texas tops this list at 35,693 health-based records - see its full environmental profile, not just this one metric. View Texas
- 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.