Anthropogenic nitrate accumulation in drinking water sources is a rising environmental concern. Currently, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) limits drinking water nitrate concentration to 10 mg/L NO3 --N (0.7 mM NO3 -); roughly half the concentration at which human health concerns arise. Conventional drinking-water treatment technologies are limited by energy (ca. 2% of current U.S. electricity demand), capital (ca. $7.5 billion per year), and/or space requirements. Nitrate-containing waste streams also often contain (lower concentrations of) phosphate anions, which are difficult to separate due to the comparable charge and similar hydraulic radii of phosphate (𝑟 𝐻𝑃𝑂 4 2-= 3.27 Å) and nitrate (𝑟 𝑁𝑂 3 -= 3.35 Å) anions. Electrocatalysis can selectively reduce nitrate, even at the low concentrations typical of groundwater. Prior mechanistic studies have identified the direct reduction of nitrate at heterogenous surfaces occurs at concentrations <0.5 M. In the direct mechanism, reduction of nitrate to nitrite is the rate-limiting step in both acidic and alkaline electrolytes, where the first electron transfer process to adsorbed nitrate is often suggested as ratelimiting. Because nitrate adsorption precedes this rate-limiting step, catalysts that lower the free energy of nitrate adsorption (Δ𝐺 𝑁𝑂 3 -,𝑎𝑑𝑠 ) may help to reduce overpotential requirements for the NO3RR. We here incorporate an oxide support to promote nitrate adsorption at the Cu/support interface.