Disparities in disruptions to public drinking water services in Texas communities during Winter Storm Uri 2021

Winter Storm Uri of February 2021 left millions of United States residents without access to reliable, clean domestic water during the COVID19 pandemic. In the state of Texas, over 17 million people served by public drinking water systems were placed under boil water advisories for periods ranging from one day to more than one month. We performed a geospatial analysis that combined public boil water advisory data for Texas with demographic information from the 2010 United States Census to understand the affected public water systems and the populations they served. We also issued a cross-sectional survey to account for people’s lived experiences. Geospatial analysis shows that the duration of boil water advisories depended partly on the size of the public water system. Large, urban public water systems issued advisories of intermediate length (5–7 days) and served racially diverse communities of moderate income. Small, mostly rural public water systems issued some of the longest advisories (20 days or more). Many of these systems served disproportionately White communities of lower income, but some served predominantly non-White, Hispanic, and Latino communities. In survey data, “first-generation” participants (whose parents were not college-educated) were more likely to be placed under boil water advisories, pointing to disparate impacts by socioeconomic group. The survey also revealed large communication gaps between public water utilities and individuals: more than half of all respondents were unsure or confused about whether they were issued a boil water advisory. Our study reinforces the need to improve resilience in public water services for large, diverse, urban communities and small, rural communities in the United States and to provide a clear and efficient channel for emergency communications between public water service utilities and the communities they serve.