Check what the utility is under before you call

Paragraph 32 of a consent decree filed in New York in June 2024 reads: "By July 1, 2029, WJWW shall commence operation of the Filtration Plant." WJWW is Westchester Joint Water Works, which EPA says supplies drinking water, directly and indirectly, to about 120,000 people in Westchester County. Every vendor call to that utility before 2029 lands inside that sentence.

I believe a vendor should know a utility's active constraints before the first call: a consent decree, a boil-water notice, a shutoff moratorium, an enforcement action. Each one is in a public record, with a date, and each one changes who you should talk to, what you offer and when.

Context and conscience

In a YouTube interview ("What Does UnifyApps Actually Do?"), Ragy Thomas, one of the authors of The Enterprise Brain, describes what the brain gives a business as context and conscience: knowing when it is safe to go out, how to dress and what to say. I agree with that framing, and it holds for anyone who sells to utilities, with or without software.

For a vendor, "when it's safe to go out" is a question about the utility's week. Here are two places I checked on 24 October.

Westchester: a plant on a court schedule

The utility's own project timeline says WJWW was notified in 1991 that it had to filter its Rye Lake source, and that a New York court ordered a plant built in 2004. In November 2019 EPA ordered the plant to be operational by 15 October 2024.

On 24 June 2024, EPA, the Department of Justice and New York State settled with WJWW and its three member municipalities. EPA's summary names two violations: the maximum contaminant level for HAA5, a group of disinfection byproducts, and a long-standing failure to install filtration. The decree estimates the plant at $138 million, with a $600,000 civil penalty to the United States and $650,000 to the state. It took effect as a court order on 23 September 2024, and it sets dates. Bids advertised by 1 May 2025. Contract awarded by 2 September 2025. Substantial construction by 1 March 2029, and operation by 1 July 2029. Missed deadlines carry stipulated penalties.

The utility has kept to it so far. Its project site says the construction contract went to Yonkers Contracting Company on 12 August 2025, three weeks before the deadline. Construction started in March 2026. On 22 September the excavation was 25 feet deep and was expected to finish in late November, with concrete work the month after. Hazen and Sawyer is listed as the design engineer.

For a vendor, three things follow. First, the main contract is let, so equipment and subcontract work runs through the contractor and the engineer. Second, the treatment path is fixed by a court. An offer that reopens the choice of technology asks the utility to argue with a federal judge. Third, the decree lists what the utility must do every month and every quarter until the plant runs: disinfection byproduct monitoring, the flushing protocol attached to the decree, monthly disinfection reports, a second round of source water monitoring. A product that helps with one of those obligations has a clear reason to be on the table.

The record also tells you when. The decree requires a project website updated each quarter, next by 15 January. The news page on wjww.com says fall hydrant flushing started on 19 October. The board of trustees meets on 27 October. And the latest test results are public: in the third quarter of 2026, the four-quarter running average for HAA5 was between 0.026 and 0.043 mg/L at all eight sampling sites, under the 0.060 limit. A vendor who opens with "your water is out of compliance" would be wrong on today's numbers.

One more thing surprised me. EPA's ECHO database, which many sellers treat as the place to check enforcement, lists WJWW (NY5903435) with a current Surface Water Treatment Rule violation and gives its last formal enforcement action as 26 November 2019. The 2024 decree does not show in that field. ECHO also lists the population served as 59,629, where EPA's case page says about 120,000 directly and indirectly. A seller who checked only ECHO would see a seven-year-old order and miss the court schedule.

Westchester is one case among many. In EPA's drinking water data through mid-2026, community water systems recorded 3,685 health-based violations that began in 2023, 5,613 in 2024 and 3,827 in 2025, and 1,464 systems had a health-based violation still open. On the wastewater side, EPA's permit data shows between 1,007 and 1,184 formal enforcement actions against publicly owned treatment works settled in each year from 2021 to 2025, and 385 of those plants in significant noncompliance in at least one of the last four reported quarters.

Constraints also show up in the purchasing items on board agendas. The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's minutes of 15 May 2025 report 29 active capital construction contracts worth about $1 billion in total, and "Of those 29 projects, 10 are related to the Consent Decree." A Houston council agenda of 25 February 2025 carried a contract award "necessary to maintain compliance with Houston's wastewater consent decree with EPA and TCEQ." On 25 April 2025 the Albany Water Board in New York had a resolution authorizing its Commissioner "to Execute EPA Administrative Order on Consent" under the Safe Drinking Water Act. After the February 2026 freeze in Florida, Polk County's commission minutes report "two communities on a boil water notice," while Toho Water Authority's board recognized staff for "avoiding boil-water notices." Of the utility boards we read, those with one of these three constraints in a water context numbered 28 in 2023, 40 in 2024, 33 in 2025 and 23 in 2026 through October. A decree comes up at meeting after meeting, so many of those are ongoing.

Mississippi: one page of water safety notices

Mississippi's health department posts water safety notices on one page. On 24 October its "Active Notices" list had 95 dated entries: 32 dated 2026, 58 dated 2025 and five older, back to 2012.

The newest is from the City of Richland, in Rankin County, issued 22 October after a pressure loss from line breaks, for customers on W. Harper Street.

I could not find lifted dates on the page, so I do not know how many of the 95 are still in force. A careful profile shows the issue date and says the lift is not posted.

For a vendor who sells pipe, repair parts or leak detection, this list is a constraint and a signal at the same time. The week of a notice, the crew is repairing a main and the manager is answering residents. That is a poor week for a first call. Repeat notices on one system are a pattern worth asking about later, with the dates in hand.

The seller who already knows

A seller with a strong relationship in Westchester probably knows all of this already, and relationships are important. Still, one state page lists 95 notices across dozens of systems, and nobody knows every one of them. The public record gives you the same context for the utilities where you know no one.

What a profile should show

I would put an "active constraints" block on every utility profile. Each item carries its source and its date. A category with nothing found says "none found in public records" and names the places checked. A blank block hides whether anyone searched.

Utilities / Riverbend Water Authority / Active constraintsACME · workspace

Riverbend Water Authority

Utility profile · 5 categories checked · 3 found, 2 none found · last checked 24 Oct 2026

OverviewActive constraintsDocumentsPrograms

Active constraints in the public record

ConstraintStatusWhat the record saysSource and date

Consent decreeActiveSewer overflows. Next milestone: condition assessment report, 30 Jun 2027Federal court docket · entered 14 Mar 2025

Boil-water noticeActivePrecautionary, Elm St pressure zone, about 40 customers. Lift not postedState notice page · issued 21 Oct 2026

Drinking water violations1 openTreatment technique, open since Q2 2026EPA ECHO · data as of 10 Oct 2026

Shutoff moratoriumNone foundNone found in public recordsState commission rules; utility rate page · checked 24 Oct 2026

State enforcement orderNone foundNone found in public recordsState enforcement search · checked 24 Oct 2026

Boil-water notice

Issued21 Oct 2026, by the water systemArea and causeElm St pressure zone, about 40 customers; pressure loss during a main repairLiftedNot posted as of 24 Oct 2026Also listed asPossible match "Riverbend Water Assn"

Monday test

Before your next first call to a utility, check three public places and write down what you find, with the date you checked.

1. EPA's civil cases and settlements search (epa.gov/enforcement/civil-cases-and-settlements) and the Justice Department's proposed consent decrees page (justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees). Search the utility's name.
2. EPA ECHO, by the system's PWSID or NPDES ID. Note current violations and the date of the last formal action, then check whether anything newer exists in place 1.
3. The state drinking water program's notice page, for example Mississippi's Water Safety Notices, and the news page on the utility's own website.

If you find nothing, write "none found in public records, checked 24 October" in the account notes.

At AquaIntel, every utility profile we build already carries this block.

Sources

• EPA, Westchester Joint Water Works Safe Drinking Water Act Consent Decree (case summary): epa.gov

• Consent decree as lodged, United States v. Westchester Joint Water Works et al., S.D.N.Y. 7:24-cv-04783, filed 24 Jun 2024 (paras. 12, 15, 23-32, 42-58, Section XII): epa.gov

• WJWW filtration project site, home page (decree entered copy, quarterly reports): wjwwfiltration.org

• Timeline-to-date (1991, 2004, Nov 2019 EPA order, 23 Sep 2024 effective date, 12 Aug 2025 award to Yonkers Contracting, Mar 2026 construction start): wjwwfiltration.org

• Construction status (22 Sep 2026 update): wjwwfiltration.org

• Project partners (Hazen and Sawyer, design engineer): wjwwfiltration.org

• Public notification, 7 Nov 2024: wjwwfiltration.org

• Q3 2026 TTHM and HAA5 report (sampled 23 Jul 2026): wjwwfiltration.org

• WJWW news page (fall hydrant flushing from 19 Oct; board meeting 27 Oct 2026): wjww.com

• EPA ECHO SDWA system record, NY5903435 (queried via echodata.epa.gov sdw_rest_services, 24 Oct 2026): echo.epa.gov

• Mississippi State Department of Health, Water Safety Notices: msdh.ms.gov ; City of Richland notice: msdh.ms.gov ; Curtis Sudduth Mobile Home Park (2012): msdh.ms.gov

• EPA SDWA data download (49,378 active community water systems, data through 2026 Q2)

• EPA ECHO NPDES download, 20 Sep 2026 (17,174 POTW permits)

• YouTube, "What Does UnifyApps Actually Do?" (Ragy Thomas)

• EPA civil cases search and DOJ proposed consent decrees page (named in the Monday test): epa.gov ; justice.gov

• Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, board minutes, 15 May 2025 (29 active CIP construction contracts, 10 related to the Consent Decree)

• City of Houston, city council agenda contract item, 25 Feb 2025 (award tied to the wastewater consent decree with EPA and TCEQ)

• Albany Water Board (NY), board agenda, 25 Apr 2025 (Resolution 25-27, EPA Administrative Order on Consent, SDWA-02-2025-8034)

• Polk County Board of County Commissioners (FL), minutes, 3 Feb 2026 (two communities on a boil water notice)

• Toho Water Authority (FL), board minutes, 11 Feb 2026 (freeze response, avoiding boil-water notices)

• AquaIntel reading of public board minutes and agendas, 25 Oct 2026: 317 utilities with dated meeting documents in 2023 to 2026 (225, 240, 260 and 278 by year). Boil water, consent decree or administrative order within about 300 characters of a water term: 28, 40, 33, 23 utilities (66 distinct). Distinct utilities by term in a water context: boil water 38, consent decree 35, administrative order 22.