The consumer confidence report (CCR)—the annual water quality report that the U.S. EPA requires utilities to prepare each spring—poses a challenge for many utilities. Most utilities are very proud of the work they do to protect public health and provide high-quality drinking water, so it’s not that they don’t want to share this information. What bothers utilities is the way they have to share it. EPA’s required language is difficult to understand, and the charts of numbers and acronyms make it less than appealing to the people they want to share the information with.
But what if you could totally reimagine the CCR? There’s some movement in the water sector to build a better water quality report. Last year, the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) launched the Water Data Prize competition to obtain market-based solutions for improving and elevating the readability, accessibility, and quality of the CCR. Raftelis’ entry took top honors for its submission centered on increasing accessibility to all audiences in design, writing, and distribution. Read more about the competition and see our submission here.
Check out the recording of this webinar where we discuss how to make your water quality report more accessible and understandable to more audiences. In this webinar, Joya Banerjee of Environmental Policy Innovation Center and Adam Carpenter of the American Water Works Association provide information on the challenges of the CCR and their organizations’ efforts to change it. You will also learn about Raftelis’ winning CCR entry as well as some features of other top entries from around the nation.
