Mission
Pursuant to RI Gen. Laws § 46-15 et seq.(1956), the Rhode Island Water Resources Board (WRB) is an executive agency of state government charged with managing the proper development, utilization and conservation of water resources. Its primary responsibility is to ensure that sufficient water supply is available for present and future generations, apportioning available water to all areas of the state, if necessary.
Principles
- All of the State's waters are shared, interconnected natural resources
- Water is abundant but not infinite or equally available
- Conserving our resources and investing in our water supplies is a shared responsibility
- Multi-level governance demands on-going stakeholder involvement
Why Do We Need to Understand Water Supply
- Water issues aren't necessarily visible
- Water doesn't understand borders: state or municipal
- Water may be everywhere, but drinking water isn't equally available
- Water infrastructure ages like any other infrastructure
- Water issues, and their solutions, are complex
Water Use, Needs, Data, and Reporting (WUNDR) Database
In September 2020, the WRB received a US Geological Survey (USGS) Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) grant to develop a web-accessible water withdrawal and use database for Rhode Island. The WRB partnered with the University of Rhode Island to; compile historic monthly reported withdrawal data for the large public water supply (PWS) systems, estimate monthly withdrawals for the non-reporting small PWS systems, and build a web-accessible SQL relational database.
As of 2022, the WUNDR database is populated with reported and estimated monthly withdrawals for all 454 PWS systems which own a source. Click here to learn more about the project, view maps and figures showing public supply withdrawals in RI, and download monthly data aggregated by Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC).
2019 Water Supplier Resiliency Survey
The WRB surveyed the largest (major) water suppliers throughout the state to collect their opinions about priority needs, short term and long term, to support water supply. A few conclusions from the survey are listed below:
- There is a continuing need to invest in redundancy of sources and connections - expenses that are difficult to prioritize through existing rate structures and funding mechanisms.
- Investing in infrastructure and aging infrastructure is a priority.
- There is a need for system-wide resiliency to anticipate and adapt to our changing natural and regulatory environment. Reassessing safe yields, managing algal blooms, and addressing emerging contaminants such as PFAS/PFOA call for investments in data and adaptive management.
For more information see our StoryMap
Major Water Supplier Districts
The map below displays the area served by each major water supplier and their respective system size (color codes) based upon the estimated population served.
This map is interactive - use your mouse to move the map view, zoom in and out, and click on any supplier to view data. Select the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service from the drop-down menu in the search bar to find your location within each district.
Please see the Water Supplier Contact Information Page to contact your supplier.
