Every word means one thing.

The water meets every enforceable federal and state limit. Legal describes compliance, not health.

“Your water is legal.”

The water is below the levels independent health science recommends for every contaminant measured. Clean is a health standard, and it is stricter than legal.

“Legal isn’t always clean.”

The highest level of a contaminant the law allows in drinking water. In the U.S. this is the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), or a stricter state limit.

“Lead has an action level, not a simple limit.”

The level at which health scientists say a contaminant poses no meaningful risk over a lifetime. It is often far below the legal limit. Each product names the guideline source it uses.

“The health guideline for this chemical is a fraction of the legal limit.”

Any substance in water that can harm health at some level: metals, chemicals, microbes, radioactive elements.

“Twelve contaminants were detected.”

A measured amount above the level a lab can reliably see. Not detected means below that level, not zero.

“PFAS was detected at 4.1 parts per trillion.”

Parts per million, billion and trillion. One ppb is about one drop in a backyard swimming pool. One ppt is about one drop in twenty Olympic pools.

“Lead at 15 ppb.”

The record of what is in a community’s water, air and soil before a change. When the change has already happened, we rebuild the baseline from public records and start measuring now.

“Know your baseline. It is never too late.”

Every public measurement we can find for a place, from utility reports, federal and state databases and monitoring sites, back as far as records go.

The utility or entity that delivers water to a home: a city, county, authority, private company or a household well.

“Your water system serves 41,000 people.”

A recorded failure by a water system to meet a legal limit, a treatment rule or a reporting rule.

“Three violations in five years.”

A water intelligence company. It scores the water at locations across the country and puts that data in the hands of the people who drink it. A technology company, never a nonprofit.

Our rating of the water at one location and time, from 0 to 100. 100 means nothing in it that wouldn’t be in pure spring water. 0 means not consumable by any reasonable standard. Built by our data science and proprietary AI models from public and lab data. Every score shows whether it’s measured, modeled or mixed, plus its confidence and freshness.

The independent grade we give a location: its AquaScore™ and its band, TRACE, DETECTED, ELEVATED, HIGH or SEVERE, always shown together. The band describes what was measured against the strictest health benchmark (SEVERE means above an enforceable legal limit), never whether water is safe. Every location gets one. Nobody applies for it, the same way nobody applies for a credit rating.

“This tap’s AquaScore rating is 72, ELEVATED.”

To grade the water at a location and time with a published, independent method, the way credit ratings grade debt. We rate taps, buildings and water systems, plus bottled water and filters. Every contaminant is checked against the legal limit and the strictest health limit, and the health side drives the score. We never sell water products, so nothing we rate is something we sell.

“We don’t sell water. We grade it.” A rating isn’t a safety certification, a regulatory finding or medical advice.

AquaScore Certified: a site applies, meets the standard and earns a mark. Rating covers every location automatically. Certification is something a site asks for. We never certify anything we sold.

What a household pays its utility for water. We always say “water rate” or “water bill,” never “rate” alone, so a price never gets confused with our rating.

“Water bills rose 62% in ten years.”

The AquaGap™ is the distance between what the law allows in your drinking water and what human biology can tolerate. It is measured as a ratio: how many times higher the enforceable legal limit sits above the most stringent health-based limit for the same contaminant.

The alert service that tells a person when something changes near their address (a violation, a permit, a boil notice), and lets residents report problems that are routed to the right place.

The AquaAlert™ feature that watches one address for nearby changes. Included in the Guardian Pass.

Our highest public warning for an area, issued on published criteria. When an area crosses the line, we publish the data, open an emergency Town Table, help residents petition the state and the EPA for official action (Safe Drinking Water Act, Section 1431), and track the response in public until it’s fixed. We warn; officials declare. Aquagenuity® never declares a crisis or an emergency itself, the same way the National Weather Service issues warnings and governors declare emergencies.

The international table where water conversations are held: a 75-minute conversation format, a Menu of topics, and one shared survey.

The household starter kit: education and action steps to get a family ready.

A region on the Aquagenuity® map whose water we watch: its water systems, its sources and the communities they serve. Inside it, AquaHub Nodes (schools, universities, anchor institutions) and Guardian Homes keep the data current. An AquaHub is the region, a node is one location, a home is a home. A hub is Lighting up while it gathers Guardians and data, and it’s On once it meets its activation threshold: from then on, the community’s water is watched over time.

“Turn on your AquaHub.”

Anyone who has signed the Guardian Declaration and watches over their water. Participants at an AquaCivics™ table become Guardians.

A household that agrees to test its tap on a regular schedule and after every trigger in its area. Guardian Homes are the always-on panel that keeps our models accurate across seasons and events (heavy rain, drought, cold months, a new build nearby), the way the people using a model keep training it. A home is a home: a school is never a Guardian Home.

One fixed location inside an AquaHub™ that tests on a schedule and anchors the region’s data: a school, a university, a library, a place of worship or a business. Schools are nodes, not homes.

An event in or near an AquaHub™ that can change the water: weather (heavy rain, flooding, drought, freeze), the water system (main break, boil-water notice, treatment or source change), the land (a proposed data center, a new agricultural or industrial build, construction, wildfire) or the rules (a limit changes). Triggers nudge Guardians and Guardian Homes to test. They never appear on the AquaScore™ readout.

The movement of Guardians.

The $30, 12-month membership: the Daily Drip, the AquaReady™ Starter Kit, Address Watch, a monthly AquaCivics™ topic kit and a seat at one Virtual Table a month.

Our yearly national campaign, March 15 to June 5 (in 2027: World Consumer Rights Day to UN World Environment Day), when Guardians gather baseline data in their own communities to keep our models accurate. They host AquaCivics™ tables, answer the eight questions, collect local water records and test where kits are available. That data sets each community’s baseline, sharpens every AquaScore™ and feeds The AquaRights Report™ each fall.

One AquaCivics™ conversation about water: 6 to 12 people (neighbors, parents, coworkers, classmates), 75 minutes, one voice at a time. It can happen in a living room, a classroom, an office or a place of worship. Every table follows the same order: stories, local water data, what’s at stake, one action each, then the eight questions. “Host a table” means organizing one. Formats: Living Room, Classroom, Town, Company and Facilitated Tables.

The four parts of every table. Source: what this place’s water means to me. Signal: we read the local water data together. Stakes: the trade-offs, out loud: what we gain, what we risk, who pays and who decides. Step: one commitment, one community ask, one Guardian sign-up.

The full list of AquaCivics™ topics a host can choose, each tied to one of the eight rights.

Open: any Guardian Host. Guided: a Certified Host. Facilitated: a Live-certified Facilitator only.

Kennedy’s four (safety, to be informed, to choose, to be heard, 1962) and the four the UN added (basic needs, redress, education, a healthy environment, 1985). The spine of AquaCivics™.

A 0–100 measure of how well each of the eight rights is honored in a place, combining what residents report at tables with what the public record shows. Published each year in The AquaRights Report™, Aquagenuity’s one annual flagship, whose Safety and Informed chapter is the AquaGap™ index by ZIP. The report launches each fall at Climate Week NYC and Atlanta Climate Week.

The de-identified, combined answers from every AquaCivics™ table. Owned by Aquagenuity and reported back to every community that contributed.

The public commitment companies and cities sign after tables in their community.

Our plan for communities where the change has already come (the plant is built, the spill happened): rebuild the baseline from the historical record, start measuring now, watch it over time, and hold the promises made to account.