Startup Spotlight: Aquagenuity
When the Flint water crisis made national headlines in 2016, Doll Avant, a data scientist who graduated from Harvard University, took it upon herself to learn more about water quality in the United States. The findings of her research were disturbing: 3,000 locations in the US contained more lead in their water than in Flint. Moreover, 71% of people in the United States have some degree of contamination in their tap water, but more have no idea. Part of the problem was that critical information on water quality was not easily accessible, given that there are 57,000+ separate water systems in the country and no set standard for reporting data to the public.
However, Avant refused to be deterred. She went beyond creating a database of toxins no one would understand, focusing instead on a proprietary algorithm that generates a water score (similar to a credit score) for each zip code. A score on the AquaScore Water Quality Index is given on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is bad and 100 is good. “It’s an easy way for anybody (even if you don’t have a degree in chemistry or environmental engineering) to understand how good their water quality is,” reads Aquagenuity’s website. Each score is based on how the toxins found in the respective locations compare to legal limits and recommended health limits, allowing consumers to better understand how their local water quality could be impacting their health.
The process of understanding all this data was a long one, taking Avant about a year and a half. During this time, her work grew from a personal passion project into something more personal when her father was suddenly diagnosed with diabetes. A retired professor who had recently moved to a new house in a new town, nothing had changed about his diet or his lifestyle except for his home address.
Around this time, Avant discovered an obscure report that linked high arsenic levels in the local water supply with diabetes. Unfortunately, her father’s health had already worsened, and in June 2017, he passed away from kidney complications. The terrible blow made her wonder how many other people were unknowingly being negatively impacted by their water supply. She resolved to build a data-driven method of predicting water crises, to potentially save lives and help #preventanotherflint. Thus Aquagenuity came to be.
Since Aquagenuity incorporated in 2018, the company has been featured by the likes of Google, Forbes, and WIRED Magazine. Ocean Visions (a collaboration effort of UNESCO, the Smithsonian, MIT, and the Georgia Aquarium) named Aquagenuity as one of seven technologies protecting the world’s waterways.
Aquagenuity “is the only database listing all test results, EPA violations, and known toxins — all in one place,” according to The Business Journals. To find the AquaScore for your zip code and learn more about how it may be impacting your health, check out their free tracker. The company also sells kits that allow you to test your water and receive lab results.
From Aquagenuity’s website: “… water is not a political issue; it’s a human issue. I believe that transparent water quality data should be accessible to all. So Aquagenuity is committed to using advanced technology tools to make water quality data easy to access and easy to understand for the average consumer.”
Written by: Rurie Yi | IQ Associate
