Editorial Policy
How we research, write, and review every page on WaterVerge. We hold our content to public-health-grade standards because drinking water decisions are not a place to be casual.
What we publish — and what we don't
WaterVerge exists to make federal drinking water data understandable. Every grade, contaminant page, and city profile is built from official EPA records and reviewed by our editorial team before it goes live.
Federal data first
Every score derives from EPA SDWIS, UCMR 5, and Lead and Copper Rule data. We do not use self-reported utility data, anonymous tips, or unverified third-party reports as primary sources.
No paid placement
Grades and rankings cannot be purchased or influenced. We do not accept payment from utilities, water filtration companies, or government agencies in exchange for coverage or favorable scoring.
Disclosure of affiliate links
Where we recommend filtration products in our buying guides, we may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. Affiliate relationships never affect editorial recommendations or rankings.
Independent of utilities and government
WaterVerge is privately operated and not affiliated with the EPA, any state agency, or any public water utility. We critique the data; we do not represent the data publishers.
The editorial workflow
Every contaminant guide, city profile, news article, and explainer follows the same review pipeline.
- 1
Source the data
Pull authoritative records from EPA SDWIS, UCMR 5, ECHO, Envirofacts LCR, state primacy agencies, and peer-reviewed scientific literature. Every claim must trace back to a citable source.
- 2
Draft against an outline
Articles are drafted from a structured outline that addresses the search intent, the underlying science, the regulatory context, and what readers should do with the information.
- 3
Cross-check against EPA and CDC
Health claims, MCL values, and regulatory dates are verified against current EPA, CDC, and ATSDR publications. We flag anything where the federal position has shifted (e.g., the 2025 PFAS rule rollback).
- 4
Editorial review
A second editor reads for accuracy, clarity, and tone. Pages making strong public-health claims are held until citations are confirmed.
- 5
Publish with date stamps
Every published page shows the date it was last reviewed and the data refresh window it reflects. Stale pages are flagged for re-review on a quarterly cadence.
Where our facts come from
We rank sources by authority. In order of preference:
- Tier 1 — Federal regulatory: EPA SDWIS, UCMR 5 occurrence data, Federal Register rules, Office of Water guidance documents.
- Tier 2 — State primacy agencies: Public-facing state environmental and drinking-water program databases.
- Tier 3 — Peer-reviewed science: Studies published in journals indexed by NIH/NLM, with preference for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
- Tier 4 — Public-interest reporting: Investigative coverage from established news outlets, used to provide context but not as the primary source for numerical claims.
Sources cited in articles are linked directly. If a link rots, we update it; if the underlying claim no longer holds, we issue a correction (see our Corrections Policy).
Important limitations
- WaterVerge is informational. We are not a replacement for your local water utility's Consumer Confidence Report, your healthcare provider, or a certified water-quality professional.
- We are not affiliated with the EPA or any government agency. We use public EPA data; we do not represent or speak for the EPA.
- Our grades reflect compliance with federal monitoring rules, not the absolute safety of any specific tap. Local plumbing, building age, and recent service-line work all affect what comes out of your faucet.
- We do not perform our own laboratory testing. Our data is the same data the EPA publishes — repackaged for clarity.
If you have an active health concern about your water, contact your utility for the most recent Consumer Confidence Report, a state-certified testing lab, or your physician.
When the data changes, our pages change
EPA refreshes SDWIS quarterly and UCMR 5 periodically. We refresh our database after each major federal release and re-run the scoring pipeline so that grades reflect the most current monitoring data. Each page shows its last-reviewed date.
Substantive changes to the methodology — new subscores, weight adjustments, threshold revisions — are documented on the Methodology page with a changelog.
See an error or have a concern?
We take corrections seriously. Read our public corrections policy or get in touch directly.