Safest Drinking Water in New York 2026
New York has 5 public water systems serving 1,541,753 people. The safest system is Ecwa Direct in Buffalo with a score of 94/100.
Top 5 Water Systems in New York
| # | Water System | City | Pop. Served | Source | Violations | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ecwa Direct | Buffalo | 335,000 | Surface water | 0 | A (94) |
| 2 | Mcwa | Rochester | 496,753 | Surface water | 1 | B (80) |
| 3 | Buffalo Water Authority | Buffalo | 276,000 | Surface water | 0 | B (80) |
| 4 | Rochester City | Rochester | 214,000 | Surface water | 1 | B (80) |
| 5 | Liberty Utilities New York - Lynbrook | Merrick | 220,000 | Ground water | 6 | F (34) |
Water quality data for New York is sourced from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), which tracks compliance for all public water systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ecwa Direct in Buffalo has the highest Water Safety Score in New York at 94/100 (Grade A), serving 335,000 people.
New York has 5 public water systems serving 1,541,753 people. The average Water Safety Score is 74/100.
The Water Safety Score (0-100) is based on health violations (40%), contaminant exceedances (30%), enforcement history (20%), and monitoring violations (10%). Higher scores mean cleaner, safer water.
Water Safety Score: health violations (40%), contaminant exceedances (30%), enforcement history (20%), monitoring violations (10%).
The this entity category groups every U.S. public drinking-water safety entity sharing this attribute. The list above is the data; the paragraphs below explain what the grouping means against the broader the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) distribution and how to read the relative rankings within the category.
For readers using this category as a starting point, the per-entity detail pages linked from the table above carry the underlying the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) data in full. The category-level view is the filter; the per-entity pages are the actual answer.
Source: EPA Ground Water and Drinking Water, 2026.