United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Enforcement
and Compliance
Assurance (2248A)
EPA300-N-01-005
Enforcement Alert
Volume 4, Number 2
Office of Regulatory Enforcement
May 2001
Community Water Systems Required to Provide
Consumers Annual 'Right-to-Know' Report on
Drinking Water Quality by July 1, 2001
The July 1,2001, deadline is nearing
quickly for community water
systems (CWSs) to provide customers
the required annual report intended to
educate them about the quality of their
About
Enforcement Alert
Enforcement Alert is published
periodically by the Office of
Regulatory Enforcement to
inform and educate the public
and regulated community of
important environmental
enforcement issues, recent
trends and significant
enforcement actions.
This information should help
the regulated community
anticipate and prevent violations
of federal environmental law
that could otherwise lead to
enforcement action.
Reproduction and wide
dissemination of this
publication are encouraged.
For information on obtaining
additional copies of this
publication, contact the editor
listed below.
Eric V. Schaeffer
Director, Office of
Regulatory Enforcement
Editor: Virginia Bueno
(202) 564-8684
bueno.virginia@epa.gov
(Please email address and
name changes or subscription
requests for this newsletter)
drinking water and opportunities to
participate in its protection.
The "Consumer Confidence Re-
port" (CCR) rule is a public right-to-
know regulation developed pursuant
to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Through this regulation, the U.S. En-
vironmental Protection Agency
(EPA) requires community water
suppliers to provide annual reports on
the quality of their drinking water to
enable Americans to make practical,
knowledgeable decisions about their
health and their environment.
The rule affects 54,000 water sys-
tems, and the information in the re-
ports reaches some 264 million people
nationwide.
EPA's goal is to achieve 100 per-
cent compliance with the CCR regula-
tion so that all Americans have impor-
tant information concerning the source
of their water and what is in it.
EPA Compliance and
Enforcement Actions
EPA is continuing to provide out-
reach and assistance to community wa-
ter systems on the rule's requirements.
In addition to distributing informational
materials to all community water sys-
tems and providing a manual on how
to develop the Consumer Confidence
Report, EPA created an electronic tem-
plate to help systems prepare their
CCRs and designed a comprehensive
website for CCR information (see page
3, "Useful Compliance Assistance Re-
sources").
The Consumer Confidence Report is
intended to reach some 264 million
Americans (U. S. EPA photograph).
States, environmental groups and
water associations also are doing their
part to educate waters systems by pro-
viding guidance and workshops regard-
ing the development and delivery of
these important water
quality reports.
The next
Consumer
Confidence
Report is
due by
July 1,
2001
Moreover, EPA
continues to assist
states in their efforts
to implement the CCR
rule. The CCR regula-
tion sets baseline stan-
dards to ensure that all
consumers receive reports that contain
comparable water quality information,
Continued on page 2
, is found on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/oeca/ore/enfalert/
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Enforcement Alert
Continued from page 1
but states may have more stringent re-
quirements.
According to EPA data, 92 percent
of the nation's community water sys-
tems distributed water quality reports
to their customers by the first deadline
(Oct. 19, 1999), and last year, EPA re-
ported similar compliance rates for the
second deadline (July 1, 2000).
To ensure that all community water
systems provide reports to the public,
the Agency and states are taking en-
forcement actions such as issuing com-
pliance orders and imposing civil pen-
alties against those water suppliers that
have not complied with the CCR re-
quirement.
Required Information in the
Consumer Confidence
Report
All community water systems
(CWS) are required to produce and dis-
tribute a CCR. Regulations define a
community water system as a system
that serves at least 15 service connec-
tions used by year-round residents or
regularly serves at least 25 year-round
residents.
A CWS that sells water to an-
other CWS must provide the buy-
ing system with monitoring re-
sults and other CCR-required wa-
ter quality information by April
1 annually or by a mutually agree-
able date reduced to contract.
While water systems are free
to enhance their reports in any
useful way, each report must pro-
vide consumers with the follow-
ing fundamental information
about their drinking water:
• The source and type of drink-
ing water and the commonly used name
and location of the drinking water sys-
tem;
• A brief summary of the sus-
ceptibility to contamination of the local
drinking water source, based on the
source water assessments that states
must complete by 2003;
• Instructions on how to get a
copy of the water system's complete
source water assessment;
• The level (or range of levels)
of any regulated contaminant detected
in local drinking water, as well as EPA's
health-based standard (maximum con-
taminant level) for comparison;
Source Water Assessments
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act states are required by 2003 to
develop comprehensive Source Water Assessment Programs
(SWAP) that will identify the areas that supply public tap water; inventory
contaminants and assess water system susceptibility to contamination; in-
form the public of the results. EPA is responsible forthe review and approval
of state SWAPs.
Funds to perform the assessments were provided through a specific set-
aside in the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).
For guidance on this requirement, see EPA's State Source Water As-
sessment and Protection Programs website (http://www.epa.gov/safewater).
The guidance layouts information that states need to provide about their
program before approval, public participation requirements, and funding avail-
able through the 1997 DWSRF.
EPA regulations
(40 CFR
Section 141.2) define
a community water
system as a system
that serves at least
15 service connec-
tions used by year-
round residents or
regularly serves at
least 25 year-round
residents (U.S. EPA
illustration).
• Likely sources of that con-
taminant in the local drinking water sup-
ply;
• A clear, readily understandable
explanation of any drinking water vio-
lations including the length of the viola-
tion, potential health effects of any con-
taminant detected above the health stan-
dard and actions taken by the CWS to
address the violation;
• Additional information about
Cryptosporidium and radon if these con-
taminants are detected;
• Educational statements on ni-
trate, arsenic, and lead, if these con-
taminants are detected at certain levels;
and
• Phone numbers of additional
sources of information, including the
water system and EPA's Safe Drinking
Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
The CCR is not the primary notifi-
cation of potential health risks posed
by drinking water but will provide cus-
tomers with an annual overview of their
drinking water quality.
May 2001
Continued on page 3
__ 2
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Enforcement Alert
Continued from page 2
Report Deli very,
Certification, and
Record keeping
Requirements
• Large water systems, which
serve more than 10,000 people, must
mail water quality reports to their cus-
tomers, either with water bills or as a
separate mailing, and take steps to get
the information to people who do not
receive water bills.
• Systems serving 100,000 or
more must post their reports on the
Internet, in addition to other delivery
mechanisms, to make the CCRs easily
accessible to all consumers.
• Small water systems may be
able to distribute the information
through newspapers or by other means
with the approval of the state governor
or his/her designee. EPA is working
with smaller systems to get these re-
ports online.
• All systems must make the re-
port available upon request.
• CWSs must send a copy of
their CCR to the primacy agent, either
Interested in seeing
other drinking water
quality reports?
EPA has compiled a online
catalog of links to reports at
http ://www. e pa. go v/safewate r/
ccr1.html. Water suppliers of
all sizes have provided their
reports online so that their citi-
zens can have easy access to
important water quality infor-
mation.
the state or EPA, by the July 1, 2001,
deadline.
• Within three months of the re-
port deadline (by Oct. 1, 2001), the
CWSs must submit a certification to
the primacy agent certifying that the re-
port was distributed to all customers
and that the information contained in
the CCR was correct.
CWSs must retain copies of their
CCRs for at least three years and make
them available to the public upon re-
quest.
Drinking water suppliers seeking ad-
ditional information about this rule
should visit EPA's drinking water web
New Electronic Information Service
EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance now offers an email,
subscription-based information service called "OCORELINK." Subscribers to
this electronic service (known as a "listserv") will receive periodic news and information
about Office of Compliance products and compliance trends designed to help the
regulated community meet its compliance requirements. You'll also receive important
information from the Office of Regulatory Enforcement on enforcement issues, recent
trends and significant enforcement actions, and will be notified when issues of its
newsletters, Enforcement Alert and the Audit Policy Update, have been posted on the
web.
How to Subscribe:
1. Send email to the listserver@unixmail.rtpnc.epa.gov
2. Leave the subject line blank, or put a period in the subject area.
3. Type the following in the body of the message
subscribe ocorelink Your First Name Your Last Name
4. Send the email with no further text in the body of the letter.
site at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/
ccrl.html or call the Safe Drinking
Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
For more information, contact
Cassandra Rice, Office of Regulatory
Enforcement, Water Enforcement Di-
vision at (202) 564-4057, or Email:
rice, cassandra@epa.gov.
Useful Compliance
Assistance Resources
Water Enforcement Division:
http://www.epa.gov/oeca/ore/water
Office of Ground Water and
Drinking Water:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater
Safe Drinking Water Hotline:
1-800-426-4791
Consumer Confidence Reports:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/
ccr! .html
Annual Drinking water Quality
Reports:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/ogwdw/ccr.nsf/
America?OpenView
Protocol for Conducting
Environmental Compliance Audits
of Public Water Systems under
SDWA:
http:/www.epa.gov/oeca/main/strategy/
sdwafina.pdf
Drinking Water Standards
Program:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/
standards.html
Safe Drinking Water Act:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/sdwa/
sdwa.html
Audit Policy Information:
http://www.epa.gov/oeca/ore/
apolguid.html
Compliance Assistance Centers:
http://www.epa.gov/oeca/mfcac.html
Small Business Gateway:
http://www.epa.gov/smallbusiness
major_environmental_laws.htm
May 2001
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United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Regulatory Enforcement
(2248A)
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
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