Providing Safe Drinking Water
in America: 2006 National
Public Water Systems Compliance
Report - Fact Sheet
What is the scope of the report? The National Public Water System Compliance Report
for 2006 describes how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its state and tribal
partners are meeting the goal of ensuring that Americans receive safe drinking water from public
water systems (PWSs). The report also discusses the data we use to measure our success and the
progress we are making in our efforts to increase its reliability and completeness. Appendix B of
the report summarizes, in table format, the annual reports that each State must prepare discussing
drinking water violations at PWSs in their jurisdictions.
Additionally, the report summarizes PWS compliance in Indian country, including violations on
Indian country, EPA's enforcement and compliance assistance activities with respect to tribal
PWSs, and the financial assistance EPA has provided to facilitate the provision of safe drinking
water to Tribes.
Who are the potential users of the report? The target audience for the report is the
public.
PWS COMPLIANCE
The report concludes that most Americans received drinking water from public water systems
that recorded no significant violations in 2006. Ninety-three percent of America's public water
systems did not have any reported violations of health-based standards, and 73% of the
population is served by public water systems which did not have any reported significant
violations in 2006. The tribes did not report a health-based violation for 89% of their public
water systems, and 53% of the populations served by public water systems in Indian country did
not have any reported significant violations in 2006.
This report uses information from the Federal Safe Drinking Water Information System
(SDWIS/FED), the national database in which EPA records information the states are required to
report on PWS compliance. For the national public water system compliance reports, EPA
examines SDWIS/FED records of violations of primary drinking water regulations that specify:
1) the maximum permissible level of a contaminant in water that is delivered to any user of a
public water system (Maximum Contaminant Level or MCL); 2) techniques for treating water to
make it safe; 3) monitoring and reporting requirements (how and when water must be tested and
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the results reported); and 4) significant user notification violations.1 While SDWIS/FED collects
information on monitoring and reporting violations, only "significant" monitoring and reporting
violations are counted in this report. A "significant" monitoring and reporting violation occurs,
with rare exceptions, when no samples are taken or no results are reported during a compliance
period.
National Findings
National PWS Universe Summary
Systems by Size
Large Systems
Medium System
Small System
All Sizes
Number of Systems
4,103
5,109
147,060
156,182
Users served
235,575,036
28,974,008
39,611,079
304,102,891
156,182 public water systems together served over 304 million users. The actual number
of individuals served was smaller, because millions of Americans drank water from, and
were counted as users by, more than one public water system during the course of the
year.
Although most public water systems are small, the larger systems serve the majority of
people.
National PWS Compliance Summary
Type of Violation
All Violation Types
Health-based
Monitoring & reporting
CCR
Public Notification
Number of Systems with
Violations
42,108
11,115
29,660
7,333
7,606
Number of Violations
128,666
18,637
91,077
11,346
7,606
Users Served
81,466,047
26,483,028
49,152,615
17,838,339
7,266,860
93% of America's 156,182 public water systems (serving 90% of the users) reported no
violations of a health-based drinking water standard in 2006.
The states reported either a health-based violation, a significant monitoring & reporting
violation, or a significant CCR violation at 42,108 public water systems in 2006.
73% of the population served by public water systems received drinking water from a
system that reported no violations of a health-based standard, was not cited for a
This report tabulates only "significant" monitoring and reporting and notification (e.g., CCR) violations. Table A—1 of the National Public
Water System Compliance Report presents descriptions of significant monitoring violations for the different drinking water regulations.
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significant violation of a monitoring and reporting requirement, and issued a consumer
confidence report and public notification, if required.
Users Served by PWS
Without Reported Significant Violation
D Users Served by PWS without Reported Significant Violation
• Users Served by PWS with Reported Significant Violation
• Of the 156,182 public water systems nationwide, EPA determined that 14,036 systems were in
significant noncompliance for calendar year 2006. Over 90% of the public water systems
determined to be in significant non-compliance are small systems serving 3,300 or fewer users.
• In 2006, states and EPA addressed non-compliance at 6,035 public water systems. Additionally
the states and EPA addressed 4,157 of the systems with new SNC outside of the 2006 calendar
year, leaving 3,844 systems (over 2% of the systems nationally) with unaddressed SNCs.
National Findings
PWS Universe Summary in Indian Country
Large Systems
Medium System
Small System
All Sizes
Number of Systems
14
45
758
817
Users served
291,628
249,982
388,628
930,238
• 817 public water systems in Indian country served 930,238 users. Most are small
systems, which serve 3,300 or fewer people.
PWS Compliance Summary in Indian Country
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Type of Violation
Any Type of Violation
Health-based
Monitoring & reporting
CCR
Public Notification
Number of Systems with
Violations
496
92
321
292
4
Number of Violations
1,936
165
1,076
691
4
Users Served
495,248
111,031
259,970
272,287
8,171
725 (89%) of the 817 public water systems, serving 83% of the users, in Indian country
reported no violations of a health-based drinking water standard in 2006.
496 (61%) of the 817 public water systems reported health-based or significant reporting
violations.
Systems with Reported Significant Violations
D Reported Significant Violations
• No Reported Significant Violations
• Of the 817 public water systems in Indian country, EPA determined that 292 systems were in
significant noncompliance with one or more drinking water standards in calendar year 2006.
Over 90% of these systems are small systems serving 3,300 or fewer users.
• In 2006, states and EPA addressed non-compliance at 100 public water systems. Additionally
the states and EPA addressed 68 of the systems with SNC outside of the 2006 calendar year,
leaving 124 systems (over 15% of the systems in Indian country) with unaddressed SNCs.
Data Quality Summary
The data used in this report came from EPA's national SDWIS/FED database. SDWIS/FED is
composed of data that primacy states are required to submit to SDWIS/FED each quarter. EPA
periodically conducts data verifications (independent, on-site audits) of primacy state and tribal
drinking water programs to ensure that the primacy state is determining compliance in
accordance with Federal regulations. EPA's review showed that the quality of the information
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the states reported to SDWIS/FED is improving, but the data are incomplete. This finding
principally reflects differences between state and EPA regulatory interpretation rather than a
preponderance of data management issues.
EPA's analysis of the data verifications found:
• 87% of all inventory data in SDWIS/FED were consistently reported.
Most of the discrepancies between apparent and reported violations are because
violations were not reported by the states into the data system.
29% of monitoring and reporting violations had been reported to SDWIS/FED.
• 62% of the MCL/treatment technique violations had been reported to SDWIS/FED.
Conclusions/Recommendations
Most Americans received water from systems for which the states reported no violations of
health-based standards, and for which the states reported no significant violations of monitoring
and reporting requirements.
States and EPA should continue working together to address significant violations of drinking
water requirements. In addition, EPA should continue to work with its state partners to identify
and resolve any problems that may have produced data discrepancies and to ensure that complete
and accurate documentation is available. Working closely with the Association of State
Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA), EPA will continue to implement its updated 2006
Data Reliability Analysis and Action Plan (DRAAP). One of the goals is to achieve 90%
complete and accurate data for health-based violations, as well as improving the quality of
monitoring and reporting violations and inventory data. EPA should continue efforts to
modernize the SDWIS database to reduce data quality problems from data entry to transmission
in the future.
Where is the report available?
Electronic: An electronic version of the report is available on EPA's website containing
compliance data and other information about Local Government Services and Operations:
http ://cfpub. epa. gov/compliance/resources/reports/accomplishment/sdwa/.
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