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Highlights and Lowlights:
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Columbus: Crisp, Cool, Clean Water: Ohio might not be the first locale that comes to mind when thinking about clean water, but it should. Columbus claims the top spot as the Best U.S. City for Water Quality — a far cry from Cleveland, the poster child of pollution in America’s waterways. Over 50 years ago, the Cuyahoga River, a source of Cleveland’s drinking water, caught fire and still hasn’t fully recovered.
While not dominating in any single category, Columbus performed well in consumer satisfaction with overall water quality, natural hazards risk, and share of homes with sewage disposal breakdowns.
Next time you find yourself in Cowtown for a Buckeyes game, throw back a glass of the cleanest water in America.
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SoCal: Sunny but Not-So-Great Water: Southern California found itself consistently at the bottom of our ranking, though other parts of the Golden State rank mid- to high-tier.
Some cities like Garden Grove actually performed fairly well in the compliance category, but where SoCal wavers is in infrastructure vulnerability. Garden Grove has a disturbingly high share of homes lacking plumbing or kitchen facilities.
Many other regional cities like Moreno Valley received poor scores in the natural hazards risk metric. This is no surprise to Southern Californians, who have been dealing with an ongoing water quality crisis for years.
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Water in the Desert — or Not: Despite ranking middle of the pack on consumer satisfaction, Arizona cities consistently have some of the highest numbers of water quality violations in the country. Tucson takes the bottom spot in this category with a whopping 56,748 violations. Cities like Chandler and Peoria aren’t far behind with many thousands of violations, either.
What’s behind this bad water in the Grand Canyon State? With a growing population, a draining aquifer, a booming agriculture industry, and competition from neighboring states, to say that the water system in Arizona is stressed would be an understatement. Here’s hoping they can catch a break — and a drink.
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The Last Frontier … for Water Quality: Anchorage, Alaska, boasts the 12th highest overall consumer satisfaction and fifth highest satisfaction with water quality and accessibility. Clearly, Anchorage residents love their water system.
But there’s one problem: Anchorage has the second highest number of water quality violations in the country, at 33,703. These recent quality issues are spread throughout Alaska as a historic drought takes its toll.
So where do the positive satisfaction ratings come from? The answer isn’t clear. Perhaps the residents of Anchorage are just a very understanding people.
Our full ranking and analysis can be found here: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-cities-for-water-quality/
Please reach out if you have any questions or would like to interview our editor-in-chief about the study and findings.
But don’t worry that Albuquerque didn’t perform well in this study. Your city ranked higher in our studies of the 2021’s Best Cities for Pizza Addicts and the 2021’s Best Cities for Hiking. Find out what set your city apart from others in these rankings.
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Pastor Dewey Note: I can attest to the very poor water quality on the west side of Albuquerque. So much calcium in the water!! We cannot drink it! It also has caused problems with our boiler and pipes!
