Water Consumer Confidence Report

What is a Consumer Confidence Report? 

In 1996, the U.S. Congress and the president amended the Safe Drinking Water Act. They added a provision requiring that all community water systems deliver to their customers an annual water quality report.

Legal

The law specifies certain content for the reports and requires water systems to distribute these reports to all of their customers. CCRs summarize information that water systems already collect. The report includes basic information about the source(s) of water, the levels of any contaminants detected in the water, and compliance with other drinking water rules, as well as some brief educational material.

U.S. EPA expects that most reports will fit on one or two sheets of paper. A report that contains too much information or is full of technical jargon will discourage consumers from learning the basics about their drinking water.

Contact Information

For more information please contact Water Director, Nora Bertram.

Who Must Prepare a Consumer Confidence Report?

Every community water system that serves at least 25 residents year round or that has at least 15 service connections must prepare and distribute a consumer confidence report. These systems typically include cities, towns, homeowners associations, and mobile home parks.

A community water system that sells water (parent supply) to another community water system (satellite supply) must provide monitoring data and other information that will enable the satellite to produce a CCR.

When Must a Water System Prepare and Distribute a Consumer Confidence Report?

The reports are based on calendar year data. The first report included sample data collected from January 1, 1998 through December 31, 1998, and was distributed to consumers by October 19, 1999.

Beginning in 2000, systems must deliver reports for the previous year by July 1. Parent supplies must deliver information to their satellites (Elgin sells water to the Village of Sleepy Hollow) by April 19, and annually thereafter.

The two systems may enter a contractual agreement that could result in an alternate delivery date of sample data to the satellite.