&EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pacific Southwest / Region 9 Guide Water for Tribal Drinking System Operators Water Division Drinking Water Protection Section • October 2018 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 866-EPA-WEST • www.epa.gov/region9 Communicating with EPA This guidance is designed to highlight key reporting and notification requirements for water systems. For additional information, please contact your EPA program manager. Sampling • All lab reports should be emailed as pdfs to datamanager@epa.gov and your EPA program manager. • Sampling dates in your monitoring schedule are the last date they can be sampled. You are encour- aged to sample as early as possible in the sampling period unless otherwise noted. • Sample results must be submitted by the 10th of the month after you were required to sample (or earlier in some circumstances). We recommend that you send in results as soon as you get them from the lab, or request that the lab send them in for you. When to Contact EPA We encourage operators to contact EPA whenever questions come up, but there are certain situations where you are required to contact EPA immediately (typically that same day or within 24 hours). When contacting EPA for serious issues, make sure you speak with a live person. If you can't reach your pro- gram manager, you can press '0' and be directed to someone who is in the office. Contact EPA Immediately • Whenever you have a confirmed E. coli positive sample result • Whenever you issue a boil-water advisory • For surface water systems, whenever you fail to meet your contact time (CT) for the day or have a turbidity spike that exceeds your maximum allowable level • Whenever you want to start using a source that is not registered as active in EPA's database • Whenever your distribution lines are depressurized from a line break or running out of water • If you discover any animals (dead or alive) in a finished water storage tank • If you discover any tampering with the water system that could affect finished water quality EPA must also be notified at least eight weeks before a new water system or source is expected to go on-line or a system plans to make significant long-term changes. Monitoring Schedules, CCRs, Sample Plans • Monitoring schedules and draft Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs) for community water systems are generally sent out in the first few months of the year. If you would like one at any other times, just ask your EPA program manager. • Up-to-date site sample plans are needed for all systems for all applicable parameters, coliforms, lead and copper and disinfection byproducts. Monitoring must commence according to the EPA-approved plans. Sample site IDs on chain-of-custody forms should match the plan. ------- |