page_title: Drinking water supply and sanitation in the United States
section_title: Technical and environmental overview
hierarchical_section_title: Drinking water supply and sanitation in the United States / Technical and environmental overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of a typical urban water cycle in the United States, depicting drinking water purification and municipal sewage treatment systems. (POTW = Publicly Owned Treatment Works; a municipal sewage treatment plant.)
context_page_description: Issues that affect drinking water supply and sanitation in the United States include water scarcity, pollution, a backlog of investment, concerns about the affordability of water for the poorest, and a rapidly retiring workforce. Increased variability and intensity of rainfall as a result of climate change is expected to produce both more severe droughts and flooding, with potentially serious consequences for water supply and for pollution from combined sewer overflows. Droughts are likely to particularly affect the 66 percent of Americans whose communities depend on surface water. As for drinking water quality, there are concerns about disinfection by-products, lead, perchlorates, PFAS and pharmaceutical substances, but generally drinking water quality in the U.S. is good.
  Cities, utilities, state governments and the federal government have addressed the above issues in various ways. To keep pace with demand from an increasing population, utilities traditionally have augmented supplies. However, faced with increasing costs and droughts, water conservation is beginning to receive more attention and is being supported through the federal WaterSense program.
context_section_description: This section provides a brief overview of the water supply and sanitation infrastructure in the U.S., water sources of some of the main cities, and the main types of residential water use.
caption: Typical urban water cycle
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