EPA Safe Drinking Water (SDWIS) Scraper

Extract drinking water system data from the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) — the most comprehensive public database of drinking water systems and their regulatory compliance in the United States. This Actor wraps the official EPA Envirofacts REST API to deliver structured data on over 433,000 public water systems, their violations, and enforcement actions.

SDWIS is the authoritative source for water quality compliance monitoring, environmental due diligence, public health research, and infrastructure investment analysis. Every public water system in the US is tracked by the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This Actor makes that data instantly accessible in JSON, CSV, or Excel format.

Key Features

Feature	Description
Three datasets	Water Systems (registry), Violations (compliance issues), Enforcement Actions
State filtering	Filter by any US state abbreviation (NY, CA, FL, etc.)
433,000+ water systems	Every public water system in the United States
Violation tracking	Health-based and monitoring violations with contaminant details
No authentication	Uses the free public EPA Envirofacts API — no API key needed
Automatic pagination	Handles large result sets across multiple API pages

What Data Can You Extract?

Water Systems Dataset

Field	Description
pwsid	Public Water System ID
pwsName	System name
stateCode	US state abbreviation
cityName	City served
zipCode	ZIP code
populationServedCount	Population served by the system
serviceConnectionsCount	Number of service connections
ownerTypeCode	Owner type (Federal, State, Local, Private)
gwSwCode	Water source type (Ground Water, Surface Water)
addressLine1	System address

Violations Dataset

Field	Description
pwsid	Public Water System ID
violationCode	Violation type code
violationCategoryCode	MCL, Monitoring, Treatment Technique, etc.
isHealthBasedInd	Whether the violation is health-based
contaminantCode	Contaminant involved
complPerBeginDate	Compliance period start
complPerEndDate	Compliance period end

Enforcement Actions Dataset

Field	Description
pwsid	Public Water System ID
enforcementId	Enforcement action identifier
enforcementDate	Date of enforcement
enforcementActionTypeCode	Type of enforcement action

How to Scrape EPA Drinking Water Data

1. Go to this Actor's page on the Apify Store
2. Click "Start" to open the input form
3. Set your filters:
   • Select a Data Type: Water Systems, Violations, or Enforcement Actions
   • Enter a State Code (e.g., NY for New York) — this field is required
   • Set Max Results (default: 500; set to 0 for all records)
4. Click "Start" to run the Actor
5. Download your data in JSON, CSV, or Excel format from the Dataset tab

Input Example

{
    "dataType": "waterSystems",
    "state": "CA",
    "maxResults": 1000
}

Output Example

{
    "pwsid": "CA0103002",
    "pwsName": "EAST BAY MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT",
    "stateCode": "CA",
    "cityName": "OAKLAND",
    "populationServedCount": 1400000,
    "serviceConnectionsCount": 395000,
    "ownerTypeCode": "L",
    "gwSwCode": "SW",
    "addressLine1": "375 11TH STREET"
}

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-result pricing:

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.00005
Per result	$0.002

The EPA API is free and public. You only pay for Apify compute resources plus the per-result fee above. A typical run of 1,000 records costs approximately $2.00 in Actor fees plus minimal compute costs.

Use Cases

• Environmental Consulting: Identify water systems with violations for compliance advisory services
• Real Estate Due Diligence: Check drinking water quality data for properties and communities
• Water Treatment Sales: Find water systems by size, source type, and location for targeted outreach
• Public Health Research: Analyze violation patterns, contaminant exposure, and enforcement trends
• Infrastructure Investment: Evaluate water system capacity and compliance for infrastructure funding decisions
• Journalism & Investigations: Data-driven reporting on drinking water safety (like the Flint water crisis)

Integrations

Connect this Actor to your existing workflows:

• Export to Google Sheets for collaborative analysis
• Send results to Slack or email for automated alerts
• Feed into Zapier, Make, or n8n for custom automation
• Use the Apify API to integrate directly with your application

FAQ

Q: How current is the data? A: The EPA updates the SDWIS database on a quarterly basis. Data reflects the latest reporting from state primacy agencies.

Q: What types of water systems are included? A: All public water systems regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act: community water systems, non-transient non-community systems, and transient non-community systems.

Q: What are health-based violations? A: Violations of Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) or Treatment Technique requirements — these indicate potential health risks from the water supply.

Q: Can I get data for all states at once? A: The state filter is required due to API design. Run the Actor multiple times with different state codes to collect nationwide data.

Legal Disclaimer

This Actor accesses publicly available data from the EPA Envirofacts API, a free public service provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The data is in the public domain and freely available for any use.

This Actor does not bypass any authentication, does not violate any terms of service, and respects rate limits on the EPA API. The Actor is provided as-is without warranty. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of the data complies with applicable laws and regulations.

For questions or support, please open an issue on this Actor's page.