How the directory was assembled—and where it stops.

Scope and release

Dataset version 2026.08 was compiled for publication on August 1, 2026. Its 3,500 source rows are presented as 3,490 canonical listings after exact provider-and-service-area duplicates were consolidated. The intended unit is a U.S. community water system or a customer-facing billing entity associated with one. Some regional companies, municipal departments, wholesale systems, military installations, campuses, and named service areas appear as separate records when public materials distinguish them.

Source priority

Research starts with the provider-controlled website, customer-service pages, payment pages, rate schedules, ordinances, tariffs, forms, and published notices. Government records, particularly the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System, help identify regulated systems and reported population. A third-party payment portal is treated as a source only when a provider-controlled page identifies or links to it.

A link being present does not make every statement on that destination current. Account-specific bills, notices, checkout screens, and signed agreements may supersede general webpages.

What “identified” means

A field is counted as documented when the compiled record contains a provider-specific research note rather than only an N/A marker. A note may establish a customer option, describe a rule, or state a narrower public-information limit; readers should retain its qualifiers. Coverage is not a quality rating, completeness guarantee, endorsement, or claim that an unavailable field represents an unavailable customer option.

The site reports missing fields openly and replaces spreadsheet-style markers with plain language. It does not convert the absence of a public rule into a universal policy. The payment-access report applies stricter tests for usable URLs and actual fee/no-fee disclosures.

Which pages we ask search engines to index

Every utility has a profile page and three detail pages: ways to pay, late fees and shut-off, and leaks and help paying. All of them stay online, but we only ask search engines to list a page when it holds something specific to that utility. A page that would mostly repeat general advice is marked noindex and left out of the sitemap. It still works for anyone who follows a link or uses site search.

• A note counts as substantive when, after we set aside sentences that only say something could not be found or that give general advice, it still has at least 60 characters of utility-specific text, or a concrete detail such as a dollar amount, percentage, phone number, web address, number of days, or mailing address. Phone notes need an actual phone number, and mail notes need an actual payment address.
• Profile pages are indexed when the record has an online payment link or at least one substantive note.
• Detail pages are indexed when they have at least 2 substantive notes and at least 250 characters of utility-specific text between them (roughly two real sentences). For the payment page, the payment link and platform name don’t count, because the profile already shows them. A single good note is shown on the profile instead.

In this release, 2,685 of 3,490 profiles and 2,844 of 10,470 detail pages meet the rule. When a correction or new research adds enough detail, the page becomes indexable in the next release without changing its address.

Coverage calculations

Each topic uses a fixed denominator so that state and national results can be reproduced:

• Billing overview: 7 fields covering frequency, rates, cost reference, sewer calculation, meter reading, deposits, and activation or transfer fees.
• Payment: 8 fields covering portal, platform, phone, text, mail, in-person, instruments, and fees.
• Shut-off: 5 fields covering grace period, late fees, timeline, notice protocol, and reconnection.
• Relief: 4 fields covering emergency route, leak adjustment, utility assistance, and wider aid connections.

Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. The interactive map and research tables measure this directory’s documentation coverage—not the performance, affordability, safety, or generosity of a utility.

Current completeness distribution

Automation and review

Software-assisted workflows were used to collect, normalize, deduplicate, and organize a nationwide dataset. Templates are used to present consistently named fields. Automation can misread a page, retain an outdated detail, associate a policy with the wrong service area, or miss information inside a document or account portal.

For that reason, the site does not present unconfirmed fields as facts, does not accept payments, and links readers back to provider-controlled sources. High-impact claims should be checked manually against the current provider material before publication and again when a documented correction is received.

Known limitations

• Public websites and third-party payment routes can move without redirects.
• Rates can vary by meter size, customer class, municipal boundary, season, drought stage, taxes, and sewer provider.
• Some rules are available only on a bill, inside an authenticated portal, by telephone, or in local law.
• EPA data are reported periodically and are not real-time customer-account data.
• A provider name in a regulatory dataset may differ from the customer-facing billing name.

Corrections and versioning

A correction should identify the utility, page URL, disputed statement, replacement wording, and a provider-controlled or government source. Accepted corrections are incorporated into a later dataset version rather than silently backdating the compilation. Visit the corrections page for the submission channel.