State profile · EPA SDWIS + UCMR5
North Dakota Drinking Water Quality
368 SDWIS-listed public water systems serve 712,349 people across North Dakota. Violation rates use that full inventory; PFAS rates use only the UCMR5-tested subset.
- 368
- SDWIS water systems
- 13,624
- Total violations
- 94%
- SDWIS systems w/ a violation
- 18.4%
- UCMR5 PFAS rate (38 tested)
The verdict
712,349 people served via SDWIS-listed systems - smaller served population (≤ 1,083,630). According to EPA SDWIS population served, North Dakota ranks #49 of 66 states and territories by people served through public water systems.
- #49 of 66
- Population · states corpus
- 13,624
- Total EPA violations on record
- 20%
- Health-based (MCL / treatment)
- 94.0%
- SDWIS systems with ≥1 violation
SDWIS violation % and UCMR5 PFAS % use different denominators (full inventory vs tested subset). Population ordinal uses SDWIS population served.
North Dakota standing, mid SDWIS violation-rate third
North Dakota lands in the middle third by violation rate (94%) - enough flagged systems for peer comparisons without matching the densest ledgers. Population served is smaller (712,349; smaller served population (≤ 1,083,630)), so a high rate can still mean a compact household footprint. Health-based share is 20% - a material slice is exposure-relevant, with the rest monitoring or reporting. UCMR5 PFAS detection is 18.4% on the tested subset (mid UCMR5 detection (≤ 35.3%)) - a different denominator from the SDWIS violation rate. Systems listed below are ranked by population served or violation count; pair rate with inventory size before reading exposure scale.
Nationwide similar states
Nearest by SDWIS violation rate
Nearest by population served
Health-based share of this violation record
EPA SDWIS classifications for North Dakota's 13,624 recorded violations.
North Dakota vs nearest violation-rate peers
Share of SDWIS-listed systems with at least one recorded violation; peers are nearest by absolute rate distance, not a fixed top-seven list.
- ND
North Dakota
94 % of systems
- CT
Connecticut
94 % of systems
- TN
Tennessee
94 % of systems
- ME
Maine
93.6 % of systems
- NY
New York
94.4 % of systems
What this shows North Dakota's rate is 94% (346 of 368 systems; middle-third rate (≤ 96.1%)). This is a comparison of recorded SDWIS violations, not a measure of current water safety.
North Dakota vs all jurisdictions by SDWIS system inventory
Where this state's public water system count sits among every state and territory on PlainWater
368 50th of 66 higher than 16 of 66 jurisdictions
States and territories, banded by SDWIS-listed public water system count
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more jurisdictions. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source EPA SDWIS state aggregates · 2026-05-15
Largest Water Systems
Most Violations
Counties in North Dakota
Showing top 30 of 52 counties.
Context: Check your water system · methodology · all states
Every figure on PlainWater is rendered directly from EPA SDWIS drinking-water data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on EPA SDWIS data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.