Check the Setup
- Python 3.10 or newer
- A notebook environment such as Jupyter or Google Colab
- An internet connection
Microproduct Data GuideIntermediate
EPA ECHO Drinking Water Systems
SDWA public water-system inventory and compliance records for building local drinking-water system lookups.
Report a ProblemAt a Glance
- Difficulty
- Intermediate — some data preparation helps
- Size
- Small · ≤0.5 GB
- Formats
- JSON, CSV
- Access
- API or Download
- API Key
- Not Required
- Provider
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Updates
- Weekly
- Last Verified
- Aug 14, 2026
- Source Type
- Government Source
- Python Syntax Checked
From Source to Product Signal
Test a Product Idea in Four Steps
ECHO Drinking Water System Search services expose SDWIS/Fed inventory and compliance attributes for public water systems. Start with one state and JSON output. Do not use the web service as a bulk-download substitute, and do not treat these records as real-time water-quality measurements.
Access the Data
- 1.Open the ECHO web-services page and locate Drinking Water System Search.
- 2.Query get_systems for one state with JSON output.
- 3.Keep the request bounded to that state rather than paging a national extract.
3
Run the Python Example
Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.
python -m pip install pandas requests
import pandas as pd
import requests
response = requests.get(
"https://echodata.epa.gov/echo/sdw_rest_services.get_systems",
params={"output": "JSON", "p_st": "RI", "p_act": "Y"},
timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
payload = response.json()
systems = pd.json_normalize(payload.get("Results", payload).get("Systems", payload))
systems["retrieved_at_utc"] = pd.Timestamp.now(tz="UTC")
print(systems.head(20))4
Test a Useful Signal
Profile Active Public Water Systems in One State
Count active Rhode Island public water systems in a bounded ECHO search and note compliance fields that are present.
- 01Confirm the JSON response includes water-system identifiers for the selected state.
- 02Summarize system counts by county or type without requesting a national download.
- 03State that ECHO web services are not a bulk-download path and that SDWIS/Fed is not a real-time water-quality feed.
Dataset Details
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is a government source. Last verified 2026-08-14. Temporal coverage: SDWIS/Fed records with weekly ECHO refreshes.
Data Types
Geography
Provider
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Data Terms
U.S. Government public data / federal copyright guidance