Under the auspices of the Environmental Health Matters Initiative, an ad hoc committee will organize and convene a public workshop to examine the quality of water supplies in different communities across the United States and consider gaps and vulnerabilities that can impact water quality and public health. By convening leaders from a range of disciplines and sectors to take a systems view of current and future challenges, the workshop will explore how to build on the history of water provision and treatment to continuously improve U.S. water systems and infrastructure in ways that protect public health for all. The objective is to identify opportunities to catalyze progress and collaborations that move toward innovative technologies and strategies, while also considering the tradeoffs and potential consequences of change.

The workshop will examine:

• Current challenges and factors that affect the ability to deliver water with acceptable quality to communities and households (e.g., aging physical infrastructure, shifting demographics, emerging contaminants, cost of improvements, regulatory gaps).
• Under-recognized and emerging challenges to ensuring safe water supplies in the next decades.

Participants with a wide range of disciplinary expertise and sector experience will be asked to look at the complex array of factors and:

• Discuss the drivers that ultimately underlie the challenges (e.g., economics, social issues, communication, demographics).
• Explore potential innovative strategies, including regulatory, economic, and other policy considerations.
• Consider opportunities for technological enhancements, including how the development and uptake of such enhancements can be fostered.

Sector leaders will be encouraged to identify near- and long-term opportunities where their sectors and others might be able to lead or collaborate on efforts. These insights will be captured and organized by actor and sector in an “Opportunity Landscape”-- a digital, user-friendly workshop proceedings.