Louisiana Becomes First State to Issue Drinking Water Report Cards

In an effort to improve public communication, the Louisiana Department of Health published its inaugural water system report cards last week, becoming the first state in the country to use annual letter grades to highlight the failures and successes of drinking water utilities.

Water systems are already required by federal law to send an annual Consumer Confidence Report to customers with details about drinking water contaminants. The Louisiana Department of Health grading system, which was mandated by a 2021 state law, goes several steps further, combining a range of measurements into a single letter grade for each of the state’s 951 community water systems.

On top of water quality, the grade incorporates data on utility finances, operations, and customer complaints. Utilities must include the grade on annual reports sent to customers.

Forty-one percent of water systems earned an A grade. Six percent received a D, and nine percent failed. Many of the failing systems serve small, rural communities, which often have fewer financial and technical resources.

Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue
 

What’s Up With Water – May 9, 2023

Tune into What's Up With Water for your need to know news of the world's water on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and SoundCloud.

Featured coverage from this week's episode of What's Up With Water looks at:

• In the United States, property damage from recent hurricanes is bankrupting regional insurance companies, leading to billion-dollar bailouts in states vulnerable to hazardous tropical storms.

• In Taiwan, the third year of an extended drought has reservoirs across the country staying below 30 percent capacity.

• In the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, UN officials are asking for more money to respond to an ongoing humanitarian disaster.

From the Archives: 

In Louisiana, Officials Pursue Fixes for Indebted, Failing Water Systems

The struggles of rural water systems in the United States are well-documented. Studies repeatedly show that smaller systems have distinct challenges. They have higher costs per person served, less skillful operators, fewer financial resources, and more health violations. There are nearly 50,000 community water systems in the country, but 80 percent of them serve fewer than 3,300 people.

Those challenges are made worse when a community is small and shrinking. 

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