https://zipcheckup.com/blog/ Articles on water quality, home safety, and environmental data. en-us Wed, 03 Jun 2026 21:03:11 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/what-contamination-costs-homeowners/ Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/what-contamination-costs-homeowners/ The median American ZIP code faces an estimated $1,700 in safety-related remediation costs — the combined price of addressing lead pipes, radon exposure, flood risk, water filtration needs, and PFAS... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/bridge-safety-ratings/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/bridge-safety-ratings/ The federal government inspects every bridge in America at least once every two years. The results go into a database. The database is public. And the picture it paints is sobering. It's called the... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/county-health-report-card/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/county-health-report-card/ The CDC maintains a database that scores your ZIP code on environmental health risks — lead exposure in children, housing hazards, water contamination, and air quality. It covers 39,040 ZIP codes.... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/energy-code-savings/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/energy-code-savings/ The state you live in decides how much insulation your builder had to put in the walls. That decision — made in a legislature, not at a hardware store — determines a significant chunk of your utility... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/epa-ejscreen-air-pollution/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/epa-ejscreen-air-pollution/ The EPA doesn't just track what factories release. It tracks what you breathe, what's in the ground near your home, and how close you live to the facilities that produce it. The agency combines all... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/fema-flood-claims/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/fema-flood-claims/ Every time a flood destroys a home in America and the owner has federal flood insurance, FEMA records the claim. The address. The amount. The flood zone. Over decades, these records build into a... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/food-access-score-usda/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/food-access-score-usda/ The USDA doesn't just track what farmers grow. It tracks where Americans can't buy food. Through the Food Environment Atlas and related datasets, the federal government has mapped every food desert... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/government-tracks-chemical-factories/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/government-tracks-chemical-factories/ Every year, thousands of industrial facilities across the United States file paperwork with the EPA documenting exactly how many pounds of toxic chemicals they released into the environment. The... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/irs-income-water-quality/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/irs-income-water-quality/ Every year, the IRS publishes something most taxpayers never see: a complete breakdown of income data by ZIP code. How many returns were filed. The total adjusted gross income. The distribution... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/leaking-gas-tanks-ust-database/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/leaking-gas-tanks-ust-database/ Under the parking lot of your neighborhood gas station, there are tanks. Steel or fiberglass, buried 4 to 8 feet underground, holding thousands of gallons of gasoline, diesel, or heating oil. When... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/mortgage-lending-equity/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/mortgage-lending-equity/ Every year, mortgage lenders in the United States are required to report detailed information about every home loan application they process. Who applied. Where the property is. Whether the loan was... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/noaa-sea-level-projections/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/noaa-sea-level-projections/ NOAA publishes sea level rise projections for every stretch of the American coastline. The data is specific, peer-reviewed, and publicly available. It shows exactly how many inches of rise each... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/nuclear-reactors-danger-zones/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/nuclear-reactors-danger-zones/ The Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses 93 commercial nuclear reactors across 28 states. Around each one, federal law requires a 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone — a radius within which state and... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/pipeline-safety-near-you/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/pipeline-safety-near-you/ There are 2.6 million miles of natural gas pipelines running beneath American neighborhoods. The gas that heats your home, fires your stove, and fuels your water heater travels through a network... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/superfund-toxic-waste/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/superfund-toxic-waste/ The EPA maintains a list of the most contaminated places in America. It's called the National Priorities List — the Superfund program's registry of sites so toxic they require long-term federal... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/traffic-crashes-near-schools/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/traffic-crashes-near-schools/ In 2022, 42,795 people died in traffic crashes on American roads. That's 117 per day. One every 12 minutes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tracks every fatal crash through FARS —... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/usgs-groundwater-tracking/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/usgs-groundwater-tracking/ Beneath your house, your yard, and the street you drive on every day, there's water. Sometimes it's 10 feet down. Sometimes it's 900. The U.S. Geological Survey has been measuring exactly how deep it... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/ust-cleanup-costs/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/ust-cleanup-costs/ Every leaking underground storage tank tells the same story: fuel seeps silently into soil for months or years, contaminates the groundwater, and then someone gets a cleanup bill that starts at six... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/water-rate-fairness/ Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/water-rate-fairness/ In some American ZIP codes, residents pay above-average water rates for water that regularly violates EPA safety standards. The data shows this isn't random — it correlates with income,... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/best-worst-metros/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/best-worst-metros/ If you're buying a home in 2026, the metro area you choose affects more than commute times and school ratings. It determines the age of the pipes delivering your water, the likelihood of contaminants... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/double-burden-communities/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/double-burden-communities/ Some communities face a single infrastructure challenge — aging pipes, or flood exposure, or contaminated water. A handful face all three at once. Our anomaly engine identified 10 ZIP codes in... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/enforcement-spike-2026/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/enforcement-spike-2026/ Nearly one in five American ZIP codes has been subject to EPA enforcement action in the past 12 months. That's 5,662 communities where federal or state regulators determined that drinking water... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/infrastructure-crisis/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/infrastructure-crisis/ The pipe under your street was probably installed before your parents were born. In many American communities, it was installed before your grandparents were born. And every year it isn't replaced,... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/island-of-safety/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/island-of-safety/ Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana (ZIP 71110) scores a 87 — an A grade. All five of its neighboring ZIP codes have D or F grades. How does one community achieve excellent water... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/pfas-military-bases/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/pfas-military-bases/ When the Department of Defense trained firefighters at military bases across America, the foam they used was remarkably effective at extinguishing fuel fires. It was also laced with PFAS — chemicals... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/school-zone-lead-risk/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/school-zone-lead-risk/ In Fall River, Massachusetts, children head to school each morning through neighborhoods where the median home was built in 1940. The water system serving their schools has detected lead — and the... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/silent-danger-zips/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/silent-danger-zips/ In Curlew, Washington — a tiny community in Ferry County — the local water system has racked up 436 documented violations. That's not a typo. Four hundred and thirty-six. The number of EPA... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/state-of-home-safety-2026/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/state-of-home-safety-2026/ Every year, millions of Americans make the largest financial decision of their lives — buying a home — without knowing whether the water carries lead, the air carries wildfire smoke six months a... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/waukesha-water-story/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/waukesha-water-story/ For more than two decades, the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin had a radium problem. Not a small one. Its groundwater wells were pulling up water laced with naturally occurring radium at levels that... https://zipcheckup.com/blog/wealth-paradox-water-quality/ Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zipcheckup.com/blog/wealth-paradox-water-quality/ You might assume that a $250,000 median household income buys you clean tap water. In Potomac, Maryland — one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the country — it doesn't. ZIP code 20854 has a median...