EPA How’s My Waterway

An updated version of the How’s My Waterway (HMW) application, developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was released in June 2020. HMW provides a comprehensive overview of water quality data and information in the United States on three different scales: community, state, and national. Collecting data from eight databases across EPA, HMW answers questions about aquatic life, eating fish, swimming, drinking water, restoration, and protection. This tool can help users:

  • Explore information about their drinking water, local stream conditions, and whether their waterways are suitable for swimming or eating fish and if they support aquatic life.
  • Discover if their waterways are being monitored and the location of local monitoring stations.
  • Learn what issues might be affecting their waterways.

How’s My Waterway can be used to learn about your water, explore data, and find out what’s happening in your community — anywhere, anytime.

How’s My Waterway provides the public with an easily accessible and understandable picture of water quality at a community, state, or national scale. Map-centric and mobile-friendly, How’s My Waterway works on all different screen sizes ranging from desktop computers and tablets to mobile phones.

What will I find?

Community: Learn about the health of your waters, identified issues, why the issues matter, and what’s being done to restore or protect the waters. Find out more about your drinking water. Discover if waters in your community are suitable for swimming or eating fish and if they support aquatic life.

State: Choose a state to find basic facts about a state’s waters, summaries of specific water assessments, a statewide survey of water quality where available, and state drinking water metrics.

National: Learn about the quality of water resources across the nation (lakes, rivers and streams, wetlands, and coastal areas) and the main challenges to our water resources nationwide. You will also find information about national drinking water quality and national drinking water metrics.

How’s My Waterway website