US water suppliers deliver first local drinking water reports

Under a public right-to-know provision of a 1996 amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), 55,000 drinking water suppliers must deliver the reports to their customers every year.

The US EPA hopes these annual Consumer Confidence Reports lead to greater public involvement in drinking water protection.

Water systems began preparing and distributing these reports in January, but the majority of systems prepared and distributed their reports over the last several months.

Many water systems have included maps, photographs and other additional information in the reports.

While the largest water systems (those serving more than 100,000 people) are required to post their reports on the Internet, many more water systems are voluntarily making the information Internet-accessible.

EPA local drinking water information website links to over 300 reports serving nearly 100 million people. This website also includes information about every local drinking water supplier, violations of the SDWA, as well as information about states’ drinking water and source water protection programs.