Wild Wild Water in the West

The inaugural Water in the West Research Conference took place at Stanford University on March 18, 2026. Sam Shrivatsa presented her research “What’s in a Definition: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Impact on Drinking Water Funding for Disadvantaged Communities”, which looked at how U.S. states changed definitions of disadvantaged communities after the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, and how these shifts affected which communities qualified for water funding, as well as the equity implications of funding allocations.