Institutional diversity and safe drinking water provision in the United States

In the United States, community water systems are not only numerous but also diverse. Nonetheless, operational scale and public versus private ownership have dominated the understanding of safe water access, leaving underexplored many other factors related to governance. Applying insights from the Institutional Analysis and Design literature, we create and analyze a dataset of California's water systems classified into 26 structural types associated with distinct governance institutions. We document differences in the number of Safe Drinking Water Act violations among these types and demonstrate their relevance for implementing solutions targeting non-compliance. Advancing equitable access necessitates greater attention to organizational structure and institutional diversity in drinking water provision.