Liquid state theories are investigated for the local structure of the simple point charge (SPC) and a modified SPC (MSPC) model of water. The latter model includes a van derWaals repulsion between the oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H) atoms, which is necessary for the implementation of some integral equation theories. Two integral equation theories, the reference interaction site model (RISM) and the diagrammatically proper Chandler-Silbey-Ladanyi (CSL) theory, are tested by comparison with simulations of the MSPC model (neither theory converges for the SPC model when the hypernetted chain closure is used). The RISM theory is in reasonable agreement with simulations, and is more accurate than the CSL theory. A density functional theory (DFT) is investigated, which treats the ideal gas functional exactly and uses a truncated expansion for the excess free energy functional. The DFT is in excellent agreement with simulations for the structure of the MSPC water model at all temperatures studied, and for the structure of the SPC water model at high temperatures. At room temperature, the DFT is in good agreement with simulations (of SPC water) for g(HH)(r) and g(OH)(r), but misses the location of the second peak in g(OO)(r). We attribute this deficiency to the importance of three-body correlations that are not properly incorporated in the theory. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.