The Great Lakes offer valuable ecosystem services, including providing drinking water to many of the
region’s inhabitants. The drinking water quality indicator is one of a suite of drinking water indicators
intended to help regional leaders and advocates understand their water quality, reliability, affordability,
and constituents’ trust in their drinking water, better positioning them to influence management and
policy decisions.

The drinking water quality indicator analyzes violations of contaminants present in water and other
regulations, illuminating the quality of drinking water available to consumers. This report explains the
indicator in detail.

This research is part of the Great Lakes Indicators project funded by the Erb Family Foundation. The
project is rooted in the understanding that the environmental health of the Great Lakes directly affects
the region’s economic health, individual and societal health and wellbeing, as well as values and
perceptions of the Great Lakes.