Summary: Although most Americans get their drinking water from public water systems regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, some households lack access to public water systems and rely instead on untreated water from irrigation systems or other "special purpose" water systems. This practice occurs primarily in the arid western states, where irrigation is needed for farming and the water is transported through open canals and ditches. California and Texas likely contain the largest concentrations of people in the United States relying on water from irrigation systems, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials. The vast majority of the households relying on such water are believed to be purchasing bottled or hauled water for drinking and cooking and using the water from irrigation systems for other purposes, such as bathing or washing dishes. Residential users of irrigation systems now pay between $100 and $700 per year for untreated water that is supposed to be used only for nondomestic purposes, such as watering lawns. The cost to buy bottled or hauled water ranges from about $120 to $650 year. Other alternatives, such as connecting residential users to existing community water systems, installing new community systems, or installing point-of-entry treatment devices, can be considerably more expensive and may not be affordable without financial assistance. Both the difficulty of identifying residential users and the costs and technical issues associated with finding alternatives to irrigation water are likely to present major challenges to states and special purpose water systems when implementing the new requirements established by the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
