In conjunction with the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency as part of its examination of relief efforts provided by the Federal Government in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We conducted this evaluation to assess the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPAs) and the State of Mississippi's efforts to ensure that the public was provided with safe drinking water after Katrina. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane on the Safir-Simpson scale, made landfall on the Mississippi coast. Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and rendered many public water systems inoperable. As a result of the hurricane, 585 of the States 1,368 public water systems were placed under a boil water notice because of potentially contaminated drinking water.