Table of Contents 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION ................................................................. . i

ASSESSING PWS COMPLIANCE WITH DRINKING WATER STANDARDS ...................... . i

RESULTS IN BRIEF ............................................................... . i

ACTIVITIES UNDERWAY TO IMPLEMENT THE SDWA AMENDMENTS OF 1996 .............. . . iv

RECOMMENDATIONS OF FOLLOWUP ACTIVITIES .................................... . vii

BACKGROUND 

BACKGROUND ................................................................. . 1

STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS ..................................................... . 1

NATIONAL AND STATE PUBLIC DRINKING WATER PROGRAMS ........................... . 2

EPA REGULATIONS ............................................................. . 2

PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS ........................................................ . 3

PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS IN STATES 

PWS COMPLIANCE DATA AND ANALYSIS ............................................ . 7

DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................ . 7

COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS .................................................... . 9

NON-COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS .............................................. . 14

VARIANCE AND EXEMPTIONS .................................................... . 16

QUALITY OF DATA ............................................................. . 16

EVALUATION AND SUMMARY OF STATE REPORTS ................................... . 17

STATE ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS ..................... . 18

INFORMATION ON STATE REPORTS ............................................... . 19

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Table of Contents April 1999 
STATE BY STATE SUMMARIES ................................................... . 19

CONCLUSIONS AND ACTIVITIES TO ADDRESS RECOMMENDATIONS ................... . . 19

PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS

INTRODUCTION ............................................................... . 23

ROLE OF OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES ............................................. . 23

PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS ................................ . 23

COMPLIANCE DATA ............................................................ . 23

COMPLIANCE ANALYSIS ........................................................ . 24

COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE AND ENFORCEMENT .................................... . 26

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE ........................................................ . 28

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................... . 28

EPA ACTIVITIES UNDERWAY TO IMPLEMENT THE SDWA AMENDMENTS 

OF 1996 

PROMOTING PUBLIC INFORMATION AN INVOLVEMENT ............................... . 31

PROVIDING TOOLS TO STATES, TRIBES, AND WATER SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE COMPLIANCE . . . 32

HELPING SMALL SYSTEMS PROVIDE SAFE DRINKING WATER .......................... . 34

FOCUSING SAFETY STANDARDS ON THE MOST SERIOUS HEALTH RISKS ............... . . 35

EXERCISING NEW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES AND UNDERTAKING COMPLIANCE 

ASSISTANCE .................................................................. . 36

IMPROVING THE DATA THAT DESCRIBE AMERICA’S DRINKING WATER ................. . . 36

APPENDIX A 

GLOSSARY OF TERMS .......................................................... . A-1

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Table of Contents April 1999 
APPENDIX B

SUMMARIES OF STATE ANNUAL COMPLIANCE REPORTS ............................. . B-1

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM INVENTORY IN CALENDAR YEAR 1997 .................. . 4

TABLE 2: SUMMARY OF DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS FOR PWSs ..................... . 5

TABLE 3: NUMBER OF PWSs ON TRIBAL LANDS WITH VIOLATIONS BY RULE .............. . 27

TABLE 4: EPA PRODUCTS TO SUPPORT SDWA IMPLEMENTATION ....................... . 35

TABLE A-1: SIGNIFICANT MONITORING VIOLATIONS FOR ANNUAL STATE PUBLIC WASTE 

SYSTEM REPORTS ........................................................... . A-4

TABLE B-1: SUMMARY OF ELEMENTS REPORTED BY STATES ......................... . B-3

LIST OF FIGURES 

FIGURE 1: NUMBER OF SYSTEMS (BY SYSTEM SIZE) .................................. . 6

FIGURE 2: POPULATION SERVED (BY SYSTEM SIZE) .................................. . 6

FIGURE 3: PERCENTAGE OF COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS IN VIOLATION OF THE SWTR . . . . 10

FIGURE 4: PERCENTAGE OF COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS IN VIOLATION OF THE LCR ... . . 10

FIGURE 5: PERCENTAGE OF COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS WITH CHEMICAL VIOLATIONS . . . 11

FIGURE 6: PERCENTAGE OF COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS WITH TCR VIOLATIONS ...... . . 12

FIGURE 7: POPULATION AFFECTED BY VIOLATIONS IN SMALL COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS ................................................................. . 12

FIGURE 8: POPULATION AFFECTED BY VIOLATIONS IN MEDIUM COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS .................................................................. . 13

FIGURE 9: POPULATION AFFECTED BY VIOLATIONS IN LARGE COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS ................................................................. . 14

FIGURE 10: PERCENTAGES OF NTNC SYSTEMS WITH VIOLATIONS ..................... . 15

FIGURE 11: PERCENTAGE OF TNC SYSTEMS WITH VIOLATIONS ........................ . 16

FIGURE 12: MAP OF INDIAN LANDS .............................................. . 24

FIGURE 13: NUMBER OF TRIBAL PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS REPORTING VIOLATIONS ..... . . 25

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Table of Contents April 1999 
Executive Summary 

INTRODUCTION 

This second annual national Public Water 

Systems Compliance Report describes how 

well States and the Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) are meeting the goal of ensuring 

the public receives safe drinking water from 

public water systems and the steps we are 

taking to improve the data that allow us to 

measure our success. The Executive 

Summary presents this information in brief. A 

Background section provides information on 

the Safe Drinking Water Act requirements. 

There is a section that focuses on Public Water 

System (PWS) performance in States. Another 

section discusses PWS performance on Indian 

reservations. A final section discusses 

activities under way that will further safeguard 

and improve the quality of drinking water 

while increasing the public’s access to 

information about the water it drinks. 

The national report, and the annual State 

reports that it summarizes and evaluates, are 

mandated by Section 1414(c)(3) of the Safe 

Drinking Water Act, as amended, 1996. State 

annual reports are released in July, six 

months after the close of the reporting year. 

EPA issues its annual national report six 

months after receipt of the State reports. 

ASSESSING PWS COMPLIANCE 

WITH DRINKING WATER 

STANDARDS 

This report presents compliance information 

for 1997 using State and Tribal data from 

EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Information System 

(SDWIS/FED) and discusses ways to improve 

both the data and overall compliance. 

SDWIS/FED is an exceptions-based database, 

meaning that only violations are recorded. The 

information presented in this report is a 

summary of data that States provide to EPA 

through SDWIS/FED regarding violations of 

regulations that 1) set safe levels (Maximum 

Contaminant Levels) for contaminants in 

drinking water, 2) specify techniques for 

treating water to make it safe, and 3) set 

monitoring and reporting requirements that 

specify how and when water must be tested for 

the presence of contaminants. Monitoring and 

reporting violations concern EPA because in 

the absence of monitoring, EPA, States, and 

Tribes cannot know the quality of the water 

delivered to consumers. Thus, consumers may 

unknowingly be at risk, and consumers, 

States, Tribes, and EPA cannot take 

appropriate steps to safeguard public health. 

RESULTS IN BRIEF 

In 1997, the vast majority of people in the 

nation received water from systems that 

reported neither violations of MCL and 

treatment technique requirements nor 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. While this report 

looks at the compliance status of all types of 

public water systems; its primary focus is on 

community water systems, where most 

Americans get their drinking water. 

The data for calendar year 1997 show that 

America’s drinking water remains generally 

safe. Compared to data for calendar year 

1996, the percentage of water systems with 

violations fell between one and three percent 

in every category. There was a 31% reduction 

in the aggregate number of MCL, treatment 

technique and significant monitoring and 

reporting violations at public water systems, 

the number falling from 141,617 total 

violations in 1996 to 97,661 total violations in 

1997. This reduction of almost 44,000 

violations even though the percentage of 

systems reporting violations remained 

essentially unchanged means that there were 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page i 
fewer violations per violating public water 

system in 1997— potentially meaning that 

millions fewer Americans were at risk of 

drinking unsafe water. As this report makes 

plain, however, more work needs to be done to 

improve compliance in specific areas and to 

improve the quality of data. 

Public Water Systems 

The 170,376 Public Water Systems (PWS) in 

1997 were one of three types: 

Community systems serve at least 25 

people year-round in their primary 

residences. 

made up less than a third of all PWSs, but 

served more than 91% of the population 

served by PWSs. 

Non-transient Non-community systems 

serve at least 25 of the same persons for 

more than six months in a year (e.g., 

schools or factories that have their own 

water source). 

Transient Non-community systems do not 

serve at least 25 of the same persons for 

more than six months in a year (e.g., 

campgrounds, highway rest stops that have 

their own water source). 

Community water systems 

Some of the most notable findings for 1997 

are: 

The nation's drinking water is generally safe 

— at 79% of all public water systems, there 

were neither reported violations of heathbased standards nor significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

• 77% of community water systems had no 

reported violations of MCL or treatment 

technique requirements and no 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 76% of non-transient non-community 

water systems had no reported violations 

of MCL or treatment technique 

requirements and no significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• 81% of transient non-community water 

systems had no reported violations of 

MCL or treatment technique 

requirements and no significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

95% of America’s public water systems 

reported no violations of any health-based 

drinking water standards. 

• 92% of all community water systems, 

serving 88% of the country’s population, 

had no reported MCL or treatment 

technique violations. 

• Most reported MCL or treatment 

technique violations were of either the 

Total Coliform Rule or the Surface Water 

Treatment Rule – rules that protect 

against microbiological contamination in 

drinking water. 

Most violations were significant violations 

of monitoring and reporting requirements 

rather than violations of health-based 

drinking water standards. 

• In 1997, there were 97,661 MCL, 

treatment technique, and significant 

monitoring and reporting violations 

reported by 35,436 of the 170,376 public 

water systems in the nation. 

• 15% were violations of MCL and 

treatment technique requirements. 

• 85% were significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

Only 2% of public water systems served 

more that 10,000 people, but violations at a 

few large systems potentially affected large 

populations. 

• 4% of the public water systems that 

reported MCL or treatment technique 

violations served more than 10,000 

people. Violations of health-based 

standards at these 375 large systems 

potentially affected more than 26 million 

people. 

95% of public water systems served 3,300 

or fewer people. Most violations of drinking 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page ii 
water standards occurred at a small system. 

• 91% of the public water systems that 

reported MCL or treatment technique 

violations served 3,300 or fewer people. 

Violations of health-based standards at 

these 8,477 small systems potentially 

affected 2.7 million people. 

• 98% of significant monitoring and 

reporting violations at public water 

systems occurred at systems that served 

3,300 or fewer people. These 28,396 

small systems with a significant 

monitoring and reporting violation 

served 5.6 million people. 

States and EPA continued to pursue 

violators 

• In fiscal year 1997, the States issued a 

total of 913 formal enforcement actions, 

including 632 administrative orders 

without penalty, 220 administrative 

orders with penalty, 60 civil referrals, 

and 1 criminal referral. 

• In fiscal year 1997, EPA issued 266 

notices of violation, 392 Federal 

administrative orders, 12 complaints for 

penalty, and 4 referrals for civil judicial 

action. 

States and EPA offered compliance 

assistance to public water systems. 

• States engaged in a wide range of 

activities to facilitate the attempts of 

public water systems to comply with 

SDWIS, including, among other things, 

onsite visits, operator training, 

informational mailings, and financial 

assistance through the State Revolving 

Fund. 

• EPA conducted on-site visits to public 

water systems, provided needed 

compliance information and tools, 

developed and distributed guidance for 

water system operators and for 

regulators, and supported State delivery 

of compliance assistance. 

At 46% of public water systems located on 

Indian reservations, there were neither 

reported violations of health-based 

standards nor significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

• 48% of community water systems 

located on Indian reservations had no 

reported violations of MCL or treatment 

technique requirements and no 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 40% of non-transient non-community 

water systems located on Indian 

reservations had no reported violations 

of MCL or treatment technique 

requirements and no significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• 39% of transient non-community 

systems located on Indian reservations 

had no reported violations of MCL or 

treatment technique requirements and 

no significant violations of monitoring 

and reporting requirements. 

89% of public water systems located on 

Indian reservations had no reported 

violations of health-based MCL or treatment 

technique requirements. 

• 89% of community water systems 

located on Indian reservations had no 

reported MCL or treatment technique 

violations. 

• 89% of non-transient non-community 

water systems located on Indian 

reservations had no reported MCL or 

treatment technique violations. 

• 90% of transient non-community 

systems located on Indian reservations 

had no reported violations of MCL or 

treatment technique requirements. 

• In all categories of water systems, the 

health-based standard most frequently 

violated (138 of 156 health-based 

standard violations) was the MCL for the 

Total Coliform Rule. 

Most violations at public water systems on 

Indian reservations were significant 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page iii 
violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements, not violations of health-based 

drinking water standards. 

• In 1997, there were 1,040 MCL, 

treatment technique, and significant 

monitoring and reporting violations 

reported by 500 of the 930 public water 

systems located on Indian reservations. 

• 156 (15%) were violations of MCL and 

treatment technique requirements. 

• 884 (85%) were significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

Even so, 66% of public water systems 

located on Indian reservations had no 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 68% of community water systems 

located on Indian reservations had no 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 57% of non-transient non-community 

water systems located on Indian 

reservations had no significant violations 

of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• 62% of transient non-community water 

systems located on Indian reservations 

had no significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

• Violations of the monitoring and 

reporting requirements of the Total 

Coliform rule accounted for 723 of the 

884 significant monitoring and reporting 

violations at public water systems on 

Indian reservations in 1997. 

98% of all public water systems located on 

Indian reservations served 3,300 or fewer 

people. 

• 709 of the 728 community water systems 

located on Indian reservations served 

3,300 or fewer people. Only one 

community water system served more 

than 10,000 people. 

• All 77 non-transient non-community 

water systems located on Indian 

reservations served fewer than 3,300 

people 

• Only one of the 125 transient noncommunity water systems located on 

Indian reservations served more than 

3,300 people. 

EPA offered compliance assistance to public 

water systems on Indian Reservations. 

• In 1997, EPA recorded 550 responses 

other than formal administrative or 

judicial enforcement to the 1040 

violations at 500 violating public water 

systems on Indian reservations. 

• EPA’s compliance assistance to Tribes 

included, among other things, circuit 

riders, onsite visits, informational 

mailings, and financial assistance. 

EPA allotted $2.7 million for implementing 

the Public Water System Supervision 

program on Tribal lands in Fiscal Year 1997. 

• Additionally, a number of grants have 

been awarded to Indian Tribes and Tribal 

Organizations to address various aspects 

of the drinking water program. 

• Budget set-asides in Fiscal Years 1998 

and 1999 are to be used for: Public 

Water System Supervision Program 

Primacy Workshops, Capacity 

Development, Source Water Protection, 

and Operator Certification. 

ACTIVITIES UNDERWAY TO 

IMPLEMENT THE SDWA 

AMENDMENTS OF 1996 

The Clinton Administration has always 

recognized that many tools and resources are 

essential to ensure that Americans have 

drinking water that meets all health standards. 

The SDWA Amendments of 1996 provided 

many new authorities to enable EPA to more 

quickly meet its goal of safe drinking water. 

Now, two and a half years after passage of the 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page iv 
1996 Amendments, EPA has exercised these 

authorities and finalized every product 

required in the law to date and has done so 

with maximum stakeholder involvement. 

1. PROMOTING PUBLIC INFORMATION AND 

INVOLVEMENT 

The public has a right to know what is in its 

drinking water and to participate in decisions 

affecting that drinking water. The 1996 

Amendments include a strong and pervasive 

ethic of public information and involvement, 

and, in this second year of implementing the 

Amendments, EPA and its partners have 

produced major tools and undertaken a variety 

of activities to ensure that the public is well 

informed. 

• Consumer Confidence Reports: In 

August 1998, EPA promulgated a rule to 

require drinking water systems to 

provide their customers annual reports 

on the quality of their drinking water 

supply. The information contained in 

these reports will enable Americans to 

make practical, knowledgeable decisions 

about their health and their 

environment. Systems will deliver the 

first of these reports to their customers 

before October 1999. 

• Ensuring Public Access to Additional 

Information: EPA is acting to ensure 

that new information tools are made 

available to the public. This year, EPA 

worked with States and other 

stakeholders on ways to make the 

results of upcoming source water 

assessments available to the public. 

EPA has formed a Public Right-to-Know 

working group of the National Drinking 

Water Advisory Council to discuss how 

to make drinking water information 

available to the public, and how to 

involve all interested parties in the 

decision-making process. 

• Using the Internet to Increase Public 

Access: EPA has been working over the 

past two years to make drinking water 

information available to the public via 

the Internet (http://www.epa. 

gov/safewater). EPA has created and will 

expand a geographic information site 

where consumers will be able to get 

information about their drinking water, 

including information on violations of 

drinking water standards, State 

compliance reports, water system 

consumer confidence reports, and State 

drinking water information and contacts. 

2. PROVIDING TOOLS TO STATES, TRIBES, 

AND WATER SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE 

COMPLIANCE 

The 1996 SDWA Amendments gave the nation 

a new approach to drinking water protection 

which focuses attention on the highest public 

health priorities. This includes a holistic 

approach to prevention and protection, an 

emphasis on the public’s right-to-know, and a 

series of building blocks for States and water 

suppliers that can help in implementation. 

Two years after passage of the Amendments, 

most of these building blocks are in place. 

They include: 

• Drinking Water State Revolving Fund 

(DWSRF) 

• Capacity Development 

• Water System Operator Certification 

• Source Water Protection 

• Proposed Regulation for Underground 

Injection Control Class V Wells 

• Support for Indian Tribes 

3. HELPING SMALL SYSTEMS PROVIDE SAFE 

DRINKING WATER 

Although they serve a small percentage of the 

nation’s population, water systems serving 

fewer than 10,000 persons constitute the 

majority of all community drinking water 

systems. Small systems often do not have a 

full-time operator, and their limited customer 

base often makes compliance with public 

health standards difficult due to affordability 

problems. The 1996 Amendments created 

several new tools to help address the special 

needs of small systems. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page v 
• List of Small System Compliance 

Technologies 

• Variances and Exemptions Rule 

• Technical Assistance 

These efforts will be of particular importance to 

Tribes. None of the 930 PWSs on Indian 

reservations in 1997 served more than 

100,000 people, and only two served 

populations of more than 10,000. 

4. FOCUSING SAFETY STANDARDS ON THE 

MOST SERIOUS HEALTH RISKS 

Strengthening research to support 

development of regulations based on sound 

science is one of the most significant 

provisions in the 1996 Amendments. The first 

major products of that increased scientific 

focus were produced in 1998. These products 

demonstrate the principles of targeting and 

focusing research on 

high risk contaminants. Products to date 

include: 

• The Contaminant Candidate List 

• Strengthening Research 

• Microbial and Disinfectants/ 

Disinfection Byproducts Rules 

5. EXERCISING NEW ENFORCEMENT 

AUTHORITIES AND UNDERTAKING 

COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE 

EPA and the States are continuing to work 

toward implementing the streamlined 

enforcement provisions of the SDWA 

Amendments, recognizing that credible, firm, 

and fair enforcement responses play an 

important role both in deterring 

noncompliance and in maintaining a level 

playing field for the regulated community. 

EPA’s current enforcement priorities focus on 

those regulations and contaminants which 

pose the greatest risk to public health, i.e., the 

microbiological regulations (Total Coliform 

Rule and Surface Water Treatment Rule), lead 

and copper, and other acute contaminants 

(e.g., nitrate). 

To complement its enforcement activities, EPA 

also undertakes compliance assistance to help 

increase public water systems’ understanding 

of, and compliance with, drinking water 

requirements. The Agency conducted more 

than 3,180 compliance assistance activities, 

including on-site visits to public water systems 

and development and distribution of 

compliance assistance tools. In September of 

1998, the Agency opened a Compliance 

Assistance Center, the Local Government 

Environmental Assistance Network (LGEAN), 

designed to help local government officials stay 

abreast of the latest environmental 

requirements and technologies, including 

drinking water issues. LGEAN is coordinated 

by a number of partners, such as drinking 

water and governmental associations. The 

network will help governments disseminate 

information on drinking water to help systems 

treat water more effectively and will field 

questions on environmental compliance and 

assistance information for State and local 

officials, inspectors, and regulators. LGEAN 

can be accessed at http://www.lgean.org, or 

toll free at 1-877-TO LGEAN. 

6. IMPROVING THE DATA THAT DESCRIBE 

AMERICA’S DRINKING WATER 

The nation needs reliable data in order to 

ensure proper management of its drinking 

water program. It is of great importance to EPA 

and its partners to improve quality and 

accuracy of drinking water data. EPA has 

collected data from States for approximately 20 

years on violations of drinking water standards 

and stored them in an EPA data system that 

has recently been modernized and renamed 

the Safe Drinking Water Information System 

(SDWIS/FED). Portions of SDWIS/FED still 

under development will better track 

compliance with existing and future 

regulations, track drinking water goals 

developed to meet the Government 

Performance and Results Act, and also make 

data recovery easier for the public. 

In preparing the 1996 national report, EPA 

identified numerous discrepancies between 

the data some States reported in their annual 

State reports and the data they reported to 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page vi 
SDWIS/FED. To ensure SDWIS/FED data 

reliability, EPA has initiated a major effort to 

improve data quality. In response to input 

received at three public meetings, the effort 

includes establishing a data quality goal, 

improving the way drinking water data are 

presented in EPA’s publicly-accessible 

Envirofacts web site (http://www.epa.gov/ 

enviro), characterizing and quantifying the 

data quality problem, and taking both interim 

and long-term steps to improve data quality. 

These steps are outlined in the 

recommendations described later in this 

report. 

SDWIS/FED data are also used by EPA’s 

Center for Environmental Information and 

Statistics (CEIS) to prepare environmental 

profiles that are available for each county, 

state, and territory in the United States. The 

public can access these profiles, as well as a 

digital library of reports on environmental 

quality and an environmental atlas, at 

http://www.epa.gov/ceis. 

In addition to having information about actual 

violations of drinking water standards for 

treated drinking water, the nation also needs 

information on the occurrence of contaminants 

in our sources of drinking water. The SDWA 

Amendments of 1996 mandated that EPA 

prepare a National Contaminant Occurrence 

Database (NCOD) by August 1999 that will 

contain information about the pollutants 

found in sources of drinking water. NCOD will 

draw on other databases from both inside EPA 

and from partners such as the U.S. Geological 

Survey, and will also include information from 

forthcoming State source water assessments. 

The database will give both managers and the 

public information on the quality of water 

which is subsequently treated to become our 

drinking water. 

The planned improvements to data in 

SDWIS/FED as well as the new data available 

in 1999 through the NCOD will give the public 

and the drinking water community a better 

picture of the quality of our drinking water. 

RECOMMENDATIONS AND 

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES 

The SDWA Amendments of 1996 require that 

the Administrator make “recommendations 

concerning the resources needed to improve 

compliance” within the national compliance 

report. The first national PWS compliance 

report, which was issued in September of 

1998, made general recommendations about 

where States and EPA should direct their 

efforts, based on existing resource levels and 

appropriations, to improve compliance. 

Because of the short interval between the 

1996 and 1997 national reports, the 

recommendations for the two reports are the 

same. 

Most of the recommendations involve 

coordinated effort on the part of EPA and 

States, or EPA and Indian Tribes, to address 

violations of a specific type or to improve the 

collection and maintenance of compliance 

data. As detailed in the discussion that 

follows, many of the activities underway to 

implement the SDWA Amendments of 1996 are 

directly responsive to these recommendations. 

1. ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE 

ASSISTANCE RECOMMENDATIONS 

REGARDING PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS IN 

STATES 

• States and EPA should work together 

to address significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• States and EPA should work together 

to address violations of MCL and 

treatment technique requirements. 

• States and EPA should work together 

to address violations at noncommunity water systems. 

EPA and the States are working to address 

these recommendations on a number of fronts. 

Improving compliance requires a mix of 

compliance assistance, capacity building 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page vii 
activities, and targeted enforcement activities. 

A key part of improving compliance with both 

health-based standards and monitoring and 

reporting requirements is ensuring that 

operators of public water systems have the 

information and the training they need to do 

their jobs properly. The 1996 Amendments 

provided funding to support nine technology 

assistance centers to help small systems with 

training, technical assistance, and technology 

demonstrations. Additionally, EPA and the 

States facilitate compliance with existing 

drinking water requirements by conducting 

numerous compliance assistance activities, 

such as on-site visits and development and 

distribution of plain English guides and 

checklists on regulatory requirements. EPA, 

with its State and drinking water stakeholder 

partners, are also working pro-actively to 

ensure that the operators of public water 

systems understand and are prepared to 

comply with new requirements, like Consumer 

Confidence Reports, and new standards, like 

the Disinfection By-products Rule. EPA is 

using the new Local Government 

Environmental Assistance Network (LGEAN )as 

an interactive platform to provide free 

information on current and developing SDWA 

requirements. LGEAN provides information 

and compliance tools to anyone with Internet 

or telephone access, and gives anyone with 

Internet or telephone access an avenue for 

conveying questions and comments to EPA. 

Making drinking water compliance information 

readily available to the public is another 

aspect of improving compliance at public water 

systems. The annual public water systems 

compliance reports prepared by States and by 

EPA are just one aspect of this effort. The 

public will also receive Consumer Confidence 

Reports annually from their community water 

systems and, if necessary, more timely notice 

of MCL or treatment technique violations as 

required by the Public Notification Rule. The 

three Internet sites mentioned earlier in this 

report provide public access to a wealth of 

drinking water compliance information. 

Putting this information on display both 

informs the public and provides an incentive 

for the operators of water systems and for 

drinking water regulators to achieve and 

maintain the high levels of compliance that the 

public demands. 

Consistently achieving a high level of 

compliance can be a greater challenge for 

small public water systems that may lack the 

financial, technical, or managerial resources 

available to medium and large systems. By 

developing new compliance assistance tools 

created by the 1996 Amendments, EPA and 

the States are helping small communities 

overcome these impediments. Among the 

important new developments: a list of 

approved small system compliance 

technologies that allows more flexibility in 

treating drinking water, and revised variance 

and exemption rules that allow EPA and States 

to provide small systems some flexibility in 

how and when they will meet drinking water 

requirements. 

With capacity development programs, 

particularly those tied to the Drinking Water 

State Revolving Fund, EPA and the States are 

helping small systems overcome the root 

causes of noncompliance— the often 

intractable problems of deficient 

infrastructure, untrained operators, and 

inadequate financing. Financial assistance 

from this fund will improve compliance at the 

46,473 small community water systems and at 

the 115,602 non-community water systems, 

99.7% of which serve fewer than 3,300 people. 

Congress appropriated $2.8 billion through 

Fiscal year 1999 for the Drinking Water State 

Revolving Fund this purpose. Diligent efforts 

by the States ensured that every State had an 

approved program for implementing its 

Drinking Water State Revolving Fund in place 

before the end of 1998 and had begun 

receiving capitalization grants. 

Enforcement will always be part of a credible 

regulatory program. State and Federal 

enforcement actions against noncomplying 

public water systems both discourage 

violations and level the playing field for those 

systems that devote resources to remaining in 

compliance. Although public water systems of 

all types need to know that violations can and 

will result in enforcement actions, EPA and the 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page viii 
States will target particular kinds of systems 

and violations posing the greatest risks to 

protect public health. Required source water 

assessments are a potential tool to help EPA 

and its partners identify and evaluate threats 

to the sources of drinking water and address 

them with appropriate compliance and 

enforcement efforts. 

EPA is meeting with States and other drinking 

water stakeholders seeking input that will help 

the Agency formulate the most effective 

strategy for implementing the 

recommendations in its first two annual 

reports. EPA will refine its recommendations 

in future annual reports by integrating the 

data improvements that result from the 

ongoing data reliability efforts discussed 

below. EPA plans to incorporate the resulting 

implementation commitments into its 

Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) with EPA 

Regions, and has identified the control of 

microbial contamination as priority across all 

enforcement programs. The Regions can in 

turn use these priorities when negotiating 

Performance Partnership Agreements with 

their States. 

2. ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE 

ASSISTANCE RECOMMENDATIONS 

REGARDING PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS ON 

INDIAN RESERVATIONS 

• EPA should take action to improve 

compliance of Public Water Systems 

on Indian reservations. 

• EPA should continue to improve its 

collection and maintenance of 

compliance data for Public Water 

Systems on Indian reservations. 

Many of the activities described in the 

preceding section will also apply to the 

implementation of the recommendations 

regarding public water systems on Indian 

reservations, especially those activities that 

focus on small systems and developing small 

system capacity, as 75% of the public water 

systems on Indian reservations serve fewer 

than 500 people. A significant source of 

building capacity is through grants provided 

under the General Assistance Program. 

EPA Regional offices provide additional 

support to Tribes in the form of circuit rider 

programs to help Tribes develop 

self-supporting PWSs on Indian reservations, 

free laboratory analysis of samples collected 

during monitoring, and grants to address 

operator training and wellhead protection. 

Rather than responding to violations at tribal 

public water systems with formal enforcement 

actions, EPA focuses on informal enforcement 

responses and compliance assistance to return 

these systems to compliance. EPA’s informal 

enforcement responses typically include 

telephone calls and site visits to counsel 

system operators, compliance letters or 

warning letters, and informal notices of 

violations. 

The 1997 EPA Drinking Water Infrastructure 

Needs Survey highlighted the needs for capital 

improvements for public water systems on 

Indian Reservations. Each year 1.5% of the 

appropriation for the national Drinking Water 

State Revolving Fund is set aside for grants to 

improve infrastructure for water systems on 

Indian reservations and in Alaska Native 

Villages. In 1997, that set-aside was $19.25 

million. Inadequate infrastructure is one of 

the major reasons public water systems on 

Indian reservations fail to meet SDWA 

requirements. 

In Fiscal Year 1997, EPA used $2.7 million, 

3% of all Federal funding to implement the 

Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) 

program, to implement the PWSS program on 

tribal lands. In Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999, 

EPA received an additional $3.8 million to be 

used for Tribal compliance assistance activities 

such as: Public Water System Supervision 

program primacy workshops, capacity 

development projects, source water protection 

- EPA is providing funds for Tribal source 

water protection projects, and operator 

training and certification. 

To ensure that any unique needs of public 

water systems on Indian reservations are met, 

EPA is seeking input from Tribal stakeholders 

as the Agency explores the most effective 

options for implementing the 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page ix 
recommendations of EPA’s annual reports. 

EPA has already identified problems related to 

the collection and entry into SDWIS/FED of 

information on public water systems on Indian 

reservations. Activities to address those 

problems and ensure the completeness and 

reliability of this data, although focused within 

EPA, will be similar to those described in the 

next section. Activities to implement the 

enforcement and compliance 

recommendations will be incorporated into 

Memoranda of Agreement with EPA Regions 

that exercise primary enforcement authority 

over tribal lands. 

3. RECOMMENDATION CONCERNING DATA 

QUALITY 

• EPA and drinking water stakeholders 

should work cooperatively to improve 

the quality of compliance data. 

This is the recommendation on which EPA has 

focused the most effort since the issuance of 

the 1996 National Public Water Systems 

Report in September of 1998. During 

preparation of that report, EPA noted that 

compliance data in many individual state 

reports differed from the data reported to 

SDWIS/FED. In fall of 1998, EPA held a series 

of stakeholder meetings that help identify a 

number of interim and long-term goals. EPA 

and its stakeholders have agreed that the data 

quality goal should be 100% complete, 

accurate, and timely data which portray the 

data submitted by public water systems and 

primacy agencies, consistent with SDWA 

reporting requirements. This goal will be 

advanced through interim milestones, which 

can be set once the current level of quality is 

determined. 

• Improve the display of drinking water 

data in Envirofacts: EPA and its 

stakeholders have agreed to a number of 

changes to improve the way drinking 

water data are portrayed in Envirofacts 

(an EPA web site where the public can 

access information about the 

performance of a public water system). 

Changes which need to be made include: 

displaying only data subsequent to 

January 1, 1993 since these data are 

more accurate than older data, providing 

better description of the data and 

explanations of violations, listing 

MCL/treatment technique violations 

separately from monitoring violations, 

developing a better way to link violation 

and follow-up actions, and revising the 

compliance period date to indicate more 

accurately the length of the violation. 

• Characterize and quantify the data 

quality problem: EPA and its 

stakeholders together are better defining 

the data quality problem. Activities 

include comparing the data submitted by 

States in their Annual Compliance 

Reports with the data they report to 

SDWIS/FED, comparing the data in 

SDWIS/FED to the data in Envirofacts, 

asking public water systems to identify 

errors in the SDWIS/FED data displayed 

in Envirofacts, analyzing data verification 

reports to identify generic problems and 

the extent of their occurrence, analyzing 

quarterly SDWIS/FED production 

reports to identify data which are 

rejected, and analyzing state 

management structures to determine if 

there is a relationship between 

management structure and data quality. 

• Take interim steps to improve data 

quality: While the characterization and 

quantification effort is underway, EPA 

and its stakeholders agreed that there 

are numerous activities which could be 

undertaken to improve the quality of 

data currently in SDWIS/FED and newly 

entering data. Activities to improve the 

quality of data feeding into SDWIS/FED 

include: developing a mechanism for 

utilities to review data before states send 

data to SDWIS/FED; streamlining 

reporting requirements for upcoming 

rules; accelerating the implementation of 

electronic reporting; conducting more 

frequent data verifications and following 

up on their recommendations; involving 

data management staff in rule 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page x 
development, working with state and 

regional management structures from 

the perspective of maximizing data 

quality; and improving record keeping 

and reporting of compliance information 

on Indian lands. Activities to improve 

quality of data in SDWIS/FED include 

correcting software bugs, accelerating 

development and implementation of 

SDWIS/STATE, providing additional 

error check routines in SDWIS/FED, 

improving existing data entry tools, 

ensuring that quarterly submissions are 

reviewed and errors are corrected, 

issuing quality assurance manuals for 

Regions and States, and facilitating data 

retrieval. 

• Make long-term commitment to 

achieve and maintain data quality 

goals: Upon completion of the 

characterization and quantification 

effort, EPA and its partners will take the 

actions identified as necessary to ensure 

that the data quality goal that the data in 

SDWIS/FED achieves 100% 

completeness, accuracy, and timeliness 

in portraying the data submitted by 

public water systems and primacy 

agencies. EPA and its partners will also 

take the actions necessary to maintain 

those levels. 

This second annual national report shows 

that there remains a need for improvements in 

both compliance and reporting of drinking 

water data. Compliance with drinking water 

regulations is one of the primary goals for EPA 

under the Government Performance and 

Results Act. As described above, EPA has 

already initiated activities to address the 

findings and recommendations of the two 

reports. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Executive Summary April 1999 — Page xi 
Background 

BACKGROUND 

This section provides background information 

on the requirements of the Safe Drinking 

Water Act (SDWA). SDWA applies to all Public 

Water Systems (PWS), whether the PWS is 

under the jurisdiction of a State, territory or 

commonwealth (collectively referred to as 

"States"), located on an Indian reservation, or 

located in a State that defers to EPA's exercise 

of primary enforcement jurisdiction. 

STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS 

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) 

Amendments of 1996 (PL 104-182) made 

fundamental changes in the nature of the 

drinking water program at the Federal, State, 

Tribal and local levels. This report is the 

second prepared to meet one of these new 

requirements. The specific requirements of 

Section 1414(c)(3) are: 

• States with primary enforcement 

responsibility (primacy) must prepare 

and submit to EPA an annual report on 

PWS violations. States were required to 

submit their first report by January 1, 

1998, and annually thereafter. These 

reports must address violations of 

national primary drinking water 

regulations with respect to maximum 

contaminant levels (MCLs), treatment 

requirements, significant monitoring 

requirements, and variances and 

exemptions. By agreement with EPA, 

States submitted their second annual 

reports in July of 1998, and will submit 

subsequent reports in July of each year. 

• States with primacy must publish and 

distribute summaries of their reports 

and indicate where the full report is 

available for review. 

• EPA must summarize and evaluate the 

States' reports in an annual national 

report, of which this is the second. This 

report must make recommendations 

concerning the resources needed to 

improve compliance with SDWA. The 

report must also address PWS 

compliance on Indian reservations, 

enforcement activities undertaken, and 

financial assistance provided by EPA to 

Indian reservations. 

In addition to requiring State and national 

compliance reports, the Amendments include 

two other provisions designed to give 

consumers more information about the quality 

of their drinking water. These are: 

• A requirement that community water 

systems issue annual Consumer 

Confidence Reports that contain 

information on the source of the water 

supply, the levels of detected 

contaminants found in drinking water, 

information on the health effects of 

contaminants found in violation of 

national standards, and information on 

unregulated contaminants. 

• A provision that improves the procedures 

for how and when public water systems 

must notify their customers when 

drinking water regulations are violated. 

The Consumer Confidence Report and the 

public notification of drinking water violations 

are a consumer's primary source of specific 

and timely information about the quality of the 

drinking water from his or her PWS. The 

annual State and national reports required by 

Section 1414(c)(3) of the SDWA are intended to 

provide a summary of PWS performance at the 

State and national level, respectively. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Background April 1999 — Page 1 
NATIONAL AND STATE PUBLIC 

DRINKING WATER PROGRAMS 

SDWA intends EPA, States, and Tribes to work 

as partners to ensure delivery of safe drinking 

water to the public. Any State or Indian Tribe 

can request responsibility for operation and 

oversight of the drinking water program within 

its borders. In order to receive this 

responsibility (also called primary enforcement 

authority or primacy), a State or Tribe must 

adopt regulations that are at least as stringent 

as Federal regulations and demonstrate its 

capacity to enforce those regulations and to 

implement other activities necessary to ensure 

compliance. In the absence of State or Tribal 

primacy, EPA assumes responsibility for 

administering the drinking water program for 

that area. Of the 56 eligible States (defined to 

include Commonwealths, Territories, and the 

District of Columbia), all but Wyoming and the 

District of Columbia have primacy. EPA 

Regional Offices administer the drinking water 

program within these two jurisdictions and on 

all Tribal lands. 

EPA REGULATIONS 

The Safe Drinking Water Act requires EPA to 

establish national primary drinking water 

regulations. These regulations set national 

limits on contaminant levels in drinking water 

to ensure that the water is safe for human 

consumption. These limits, known as MCLs, 

set the maximum permissible level of a 

contaminant in water delivered to a user of a 

PWS. At the Federal level, EPA has set 

drinking water standards, or MCLs, for more 

than 80 contaminants. There are MCLs both 

for contaminants that cause acute health 

effects after a short-term exposure and for 

contaminants that can cause chronic health 

effects after long-term exposure. Additional 

information on the health effects of specific 

contaminants can be found on the EPA web 

site (http://www.epa.gov/safewater). 

For some regulations, EPA establishes a 

treatment technique requirement instead of an 

MCL. Treatment techniques protect drinking 

water where it is impractical to monitor and 

determine the level of a particular 

contaminant. The required treatment 

techniques are designed to prevent known or 

anticipated health effects. Treatment 

technique requirements have been established 

under both the Surface Water Treatment Rule 

and the Lead and Copper Rule. A violation of a 

treatment technique indicates that the system 

failed to treat the water as specified to 

minimize the presence of potentially harmful 

contaminants. 

EPA also sets monitoring, reporting, and 

record keeping requirements that PWSs must 

follow. A monitoring or reporting violation can 

occur when a PWS either fails to take the 

required number of samples or perform a 

required analysis, or fails to report the results 

of an analysis performed in a timely manner or 

as required by law. SDWA requires States to 

report only significant monitoring and 

reporting violations in their annual PWS 

compliance reports. A significant monitoring 

and reporting violation occurs when a PWS 

collects none of the samples or submits none 

of the reports required by a particular 

regulatory provision. A significant monitoring 

and reporting violation can also occur if a PWS 

collects less than 90% of the samples or 

submits less than 90% of the reports required 

by the Surface Water Treatment Rule. 

Appendix A contains additional information 

about the definition and application of 

significant monitoring and reporting violations. 

PWSs are required to report all monitoring 

results to the primary enforcement authority. 

States with primacy, or EPA where it 

administers the program, analyze the 

monitoring results, determine compliance, and 

report violations to EPA on a quarterly basis. 

EPA maintains records of these violations in 

the national Safe Drinking Water Information 

System (SDWIS/FED). Because SDWIS/FED 

is an exceptions-based system, it records only 

violations or instances of non-compliance. 

SDWIS/FED does not record PWS monitoring 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Background April 1999 — Page 2 
results that demonstrate compliance. ACUTE contaminants: Short-term exposure to 

unsafe levels may cause immediate adverse 

health effects. 

Surface Water Treatment Rule -All water 

systems that get their water from a surface 

water source (a river, lake or reservoir) or a 

ground water source that comes into contact 

with a surface water source must disinfect 

and filter that water. 

against viruses, Giardia lambia, and other 

microbial pathogens that can cause vomiting 

and dysentery. 

Total Coliform Rule - All water systems must 

test for the presence of 

bacteria, as their presence may 

presence of other, harmful bacteria. 

results for total coliform must be followed by 

tests for other microbial pathogens, such as 

e. coli, that can cause vomiting and dysentery. 

Lead and Copper Rule - All community and 

non-transient non-community water systems 

must control the amount of lead and copper 

delivered to the tap, usually by maintaining a 

water pH level that will not leach these metals 

from pipes. Exposure to high lead levels can 

delay the physical or mental development of 

children. 

problems and elevated blood pressure. 

-term exposure to high levels of copper may 

produce gastrointestinal distress, while 

extended exposure can result in damage to 

the liver or kidneys. 

Nitrates/Nitrates -All water systems must 

test for these contaminants that can diminish 

the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen. 

levels of nitrates in drinking water are of 

particular concern for infants under the age of 

six months. 

CHRONIC contaminants: May cause adverse 

health effects if ingested at unsafe levels 

over many years. 

Radionuclides - All community water systems 

must limit the levels of radioactive particles in 

drinking water to reduce the risk of cancer. 

Organic Chemicals - All community water 

systems must limit the levels of these 

contaminants (usually solvents or pesticides) 

in drinking water to reduce the risk of cancer 

and other adverse health effects. 

Inorganic Chemicals - All community and 

non-transient non-community water systems 

must limit the levels of these substances (e.g., 

The rule protects people 

harmless coliform 

indicate the 

Positive 

Adults may experience kidney 

Short 

High 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Background April 1999 — Page 3
States with primacy, or EPA where it 

administers the program, may grant a PWS a 

variance or exemption from national primary 

drinking water standards, provided that the 

terms of the variance or exemption adequately 

protect public health. As provided by SDWA, 

variances are available to PWSs that cannot 

comply with national primary drinking water 

regulations (due to poor source water quality, 

or, in the case of small systems, inadequate 

financial resources). Variances generally allow 

a PWS to comply with less stringent, but still 

protective standards based on a specific 

EPA-approved technology available to the 

system. An exemption allows a PWS with 

compelling circumstances (including economic 

considerations) additional time to achieve 

compliance with applicable SDWA 

requirements. An exemption is limited to 

three years, although extensions of up to six 

additional years are available to very small 

PWS under certain defined conditions. 

PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS 

The SDWA requirements described above 

apply to public water systems (PWSs). A PWS 

is defined as a system that has at least 15 

service connections or serves an average of at 

least 25 people for at least 60 days per year. 

There are three types of PWSs: 

Community systems serve at least 25 people 

year-round in their primary residences. 

Community water systems made up less than a 

third of all PWSs, but served more than 91% of 

the population served by PWSs. 

Non-transient Non-community systems 

serve at least 25 of the same persons for more 

than six months in a year (e.g., schools or 

factories that have their own water source). 

Transient Non-community systems do not 

serve at least 25 of the same persons for more 

than six months in a year (e.g., campgrounds, 

highway rest stops that have their own water 

source). 

In 1997, there were 170,376 public water 

systems. Table 1 presents a breakdown of 

these systems by type: 

• Community water systems: 54,367 

systems serving 252.4 million people. 

• Non-transient non-community water 

systems: 20,255 systems serving 6.2 

million people. 

• Transient non-community water 

systems: 95,754 systems serving 16.8 

million people. 

PWSs obtain their water from: 

• Surface water sources which include 

rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. 

• Ground water sources that are supplied 

from wells drilled into underground 

aquifers. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Background April 1999 — Page 4 
TABLE 1: PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM INVENTORY IN CALENDAR YEAR 1997

Water 

Source 

Community Water Systems (CWS) Non-transient Non-community Water 

Systems (NTNCWSs) 

Transient Non-community Water 

Systems (TNCWS) 

Number of 

Systems 

Population 

Served (millions) 

Number of 

Systems 

Population 

Served (millions) 

Number of 

Systems 

Population 

Served (millions) 

Surface 10,394 167.5 754 0.8 1980 0.83 

Ground 43,973 85 19,501 5.5 93,774 15.9 

Total 54,367 252.5 20,255 6.2 95,754 16.8 

Percent of 

Total PWSs 

32% * 12% * 56.2% * 

* Populations for all three categories are not totaled, as many people consume water from more than one category of water system. 

Source: EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Information System 

Some PWSs obtain their water from a 

combination of the two types of sources or 

purchase their water from another PWS. In 

1997, surface water served as the source for 

approximately 8% of the PWSs serving 

approximately 61% of the total population 

served by PWSs (Table 2). Ground water served 

as a source for approximately 92% of the 

PWSs, serving approximately 39% of the 

population served by PWSs. 

Each of the three types of public water 

systems is regulated differently. Generally 

speaking, community water systems must 

comply with all regulations. Transient systems 

do not have to comply with the regulations for 

contaminants that cause chronic health 

effects to occur. Table 2 provides a summary 

of which drinking water regulations apply to 

each category of PWS. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Background April 1999 — Page 5 
TABLE 2: SUMMARY OF DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS FOR PWSs 

Applicability of Current Regulations 

Contaminant/Rule Community Water 

Systems 

Non-transient Noncommunity Water 

Systems 

Transient Noncommunity Water 

Systems 

Organic Contaminants All All 

Some 

(Only epichlorohydrin and 

acrylamide) 

Total Trihalomethanes 

(TTHM) 

Some 

(Only systems serving 

more than 10,000) 

None None 

Inorganic Contaminants All 

Some 

(All except arsenic and 

fluoride) 

None 

Nitrate and Nitrite All All All 

Radionuclides All None None 

Total Coliform All All All 

Surface Water Treatment 

Some 

(Only PWSs using surface 

water sources or ground 

water sources under the 

direct influence of surface 

water) 

Some 

(Only PWSs using surface 

water sources or ground 

water sources under the 

direct influence of surface 

water) 

Some 

(Only PWSs using surface 

water sources or ground 

water sources under the 

direct influence of surface 

water) 

Lead and Copper All All None 

PWSs can also be classified according to the 

size of the population that is being served. EPA 

frequently analyzes compliance trends based 

on three PWS size categories: 

• Small systems: serve 25 to 3,300 persons 

• Medium systems: serve 3,301 to 10,000 

persons 

• Large systems: serve more than 10,000 

persons 

The number of public water systems in each 

size classification in 1997 are shown in Figure 

1. The total population served by public water 

systems in each size classification is shown in 

Figure 2. These figures illustrate that while 

most public water systems (more than 95%) 

are small, nearly four out of every five 

Americans receive their drinking water from 

one of the relatively few large systems. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Background April 1999 — Page 6 
FIGURE 1: NUMBER OF SYSTEMS (by system size) 

46.5 

4.3 3.6 

0 

5 

10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

35 

40 

45 

50 

Small (25-3,300) Medium (3,301 -

10,000) 

Large (over 10,000) 

Number of Systems (thousands) 

FIGURE 2: POPULATION SERVED (by system size) 

25.0 25.1 

202.4 

0.0 

50.0 

100.0 

150.0 

200.0 

250.0 

Small (25-3,300) Medium (3,301 -

10,000) 

Large (over 

10,000) 

Population Served (millions) 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Background April 1999 — Page 7
Public Water Systems in States 

PWS COMPLIANCE DATA AND 

ANALYSIS 

EPA has compiled and reviewed 1997 

violations data available from the annual State 

Public Water Systems Reports and national 

public water system (PWS) data from EPA's 

SDWIS/FED database. The national analysis 

uses SDWIS/FED data rather than data from 

the State reports, primarily because EPA, in 

order to conduct analyses at the national level, 

used information reported in a consistent 

database. Summaries of data from the State's 

reports appear in Appendix B. In developing 

this report, EPA and its partners have realized 

that we have questions about the quality of 

some of the data contained in SDWIS/FED. 

Nonetheless, we believe that when the data are 

viewed in the aggregate, it presents a reliable 

overall compliance picture of PWSs 

nationwide. A discussion of data quality 

concerns and actions recommended to address 

these concerns are presented later in this 

section. 

DATA ANALYSIS 

In the analysis that follows, compliance data 

will be presented by type of water system to 

prevent double counting the population when 

In 1997, there were 170,376 public water 

systems in America. 

54,367 community water systems (32%) 

served more than 252 million people. 

20,255 non-transient non-community 

systems (12%) served more than 6 million 

people. 

95,754 transient non-community systems 

(56%) served almost 17 million people. 

presenting the number of people served by 

systems reporting a violation. One person 

could drink water from three different sources 

during a day by drinking water from her 

residence (served by a community water 

system), her school (served by a non-transient 

non-community water system), and at a 

campground or highway rest stop (served by a 

transient non-community water system). 

Including that same person three times in the 

population figures would be misleading. 

This report looks at the compliance status of 

all types of public water systems. However, 

the report focuses particular attention on 

community water systems because those 

systems are where the majority of the 

population gets most of its drinking water. 

Within the limitations of data quality, as 

discussed in this report, some of the most 

notable findings are: 

The nation's drinking water is generally safe 

— at 79% of all public water systems, there 

were neither reported violations of heathbased standards nor significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

• 77% of community water systems had no 

reported violations of MCL or treatment 

technique requirements and no 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 76% of non-transient non-community 

water systems had no reported violations 

of MCL or treatment technique 

requirements and no significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• 81% of transient non-community water 

systems had no reported violations of 

MCL or treatment technique 

requirements and no significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 8 
95% of the America’s public water systems 

reported no violations of any health-based 

drinking water standards. 

• 92% of community water systems had no 

reported MCL or treatment technique 

violations. Most of the MCL or treatment 

technique violations that were reported 

were of the Total Coliform Rule or the 

Surface Water Treatment Rule - rules 

that protect against microbiological 

contamination of drinking water. 

• 95% of non-transient non-community 

water systems had no reported MCL or 

treatment technique violations. Most of 

the MCL or treatment technique 

violations that were reported were of the 

Total Coliform Rule. 

• 96% of transient non-community water 

systems had no reported MCL or 

treatment technique violations. As with 

non-transient non-community water 

systems, most of the MCL or treatment 

technique violations that were reported 

were of the Total Coliform Rule. 

Most violations were significant violations 

of monitoring and reporting requirements 

rather than violations of heath-based 

standards. 

• In 1997, there were 97,661 MCL, 

treatment technique, and significant 

monitoring and reporting violations 

reported by 35,436 of the 170,376 public 

water systems in the nation. 

• 15,054 (15%) were violations of healthbased MCL or treatment technique 

requirements. 

• 82,607 (85%) were significant violations 

of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

Even so, 83% of all public water systems 

had no significant violations of monitoring 

and reporting requirements. 

• 83% of community water systems had no 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 79% of non-transient non-community 

water systems had no reported 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 83% of transient non-community water 

systems had no violations of significant 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

Although only 2% of public water systems 

served more that 10,000 people, but 

violations of health-based standards at a few 

large systems potentially affected large 

populations. 

• 4% of the public water systems that 

reported MCL or treatment technique 

violations served more than 10,000 

people. Violations of health-based 

standards at these 375 large systems 

potentially affected more than 26 million 

people. 

• All but two of the large systems reporting 

MCL or treatment technique violations 

were community water systems. The 

health-based standards they most 

frequently violated were the MCL or 

treatment technique requirements for 

the Total Coliform Rule and the Surface 

Water Treatment Rule. 

95% of all public water systems served fewer 

than 3,300 people. Most violations of 

drinking water standards occurred at a 

small system 

• 91% of the public water systems that 

reported MCL or treatment technique 

violations served 3,300 or fewer people. 

Violations of health-based standards at 

these 8,477 small systems had the 

potential to affect 2.7 million people. 

• 98% of significant monitoring and 

reporting violations at public water 

systems occurred at systems that served 

3,300 or fewer people. These 28,396 

small systems with a significant 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 9 
monitoring and reporting violation 

served 5.6 million people. 

COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS 

In 1997, there were 54,367 community water 

systems in America that together served a 

population of approximately 252.5 million 

people. The remaining population received 

residential water from individual wells or from 

water systems that were too small to meet the 

definition of a Federal public water system (i.e. 

the system served fewer than 25 people). 

Community Water Systems in 1997 

46,473 small systems served 25 million 

people 

4,303 medium systems served 25 million 

people 

3,591 large systems served 202 million 

people 

Figures 3 - 6 show the percentages of small, 

medium, and large community water systems 

reporting treatment technique and significant 

monitoring and reporting violations of the 

Surface Water Treatment Rule, Lead and 

Copper Rule, chemical cluster (incorporating 

violations of the organics, inorganics, 

nitrates/nitrites, radionuclides, and total 

trihalomethanes regulations), and Total 

Coliform Rule, respectively. These figures also 

display the absolute numbers of violations for 

each size category, indicating that small 

community water systems were responsible for 

most of the reported violations. However, a 

comparison with Figures 7 - 9, which show the 

population potentially affected by the reported 

violations, demonstrates that most of the 

populations potentially affected by violations 

received water from a large community water 

system. 

85% of community water systems were 

small. 

Small community water systems were 

responsible for 82% of all violations of 

health-based standards reported by 

community water systems— potentially 

affecting 2 million people. 

7% of community water systems were 

large. 

Large community water systems were 

responsible for 9% of all violations of helathbased standards reported by community 

water systems— potentially affecting more 

than 26 million people. 

Figures 3 - 5 demonstrate that compliance 

rates for community water systems are better 

than 95% for most drinking water 

requirements. In all size categories, fewer 

than 2% of community water systems reported 

MCL or treatment technique violations of the 

Lead and Copper Rule or the chemical cluster, 

and fewer than 4% violated the treatment 

technique requirements of the Surface Water 

Treatment Rule. In all size categories, fewer 

than five percent of community water systems 

were responsible for significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting provisions of the 

Surface Water Treatment Rule, the Lead and 

Copper Rule, or the chemical cluster. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 10 
FIGURE 3: PERCENTAGE OF COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS IN VIOLATION OF THE SWTR 

(Note: The absolute number presented on the bars represent the total number of 

violations for the systems.) 

1.7% 

0.8% 

3.0% 

0.7% 

3.5% 

0.4% 

0% 

1% 

2% 

3% 

4% 

Small Medium Large 

TRT Violations M/R Violations 

1399 2060 286 47 351 21

FIGURE 4: PERCENTAGE OF COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS IN VIOLATION OF THE LCR 

(Note: The absolute number presented on the bars represent the total number of 

violations for the systems.) 

0.1% 

4.0% 

0.2% 

1.0% 

0.2% 

2.0% 

0% 

1% 

2% 

3% 

4% 

5% 

Small Medium Large 

TRT Violations M/R Violations 

68 4318 7 85 8 111

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 11 
FIGURE 5: PERCENTAGE OF COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS WITH CHEMICAL VIOLATIONS 

(Note: The absolute number presented on the bars represent the total number of 

violations for the systems.) 

1.0% 

4.0% 

1.0% 

3.0% 

1.4% 

4.0% 

0% 

1% 

2% 

3% 

4% 

5% 

6% 

Small Medium Large 

MCL Violations M/R Violations 

822 16557 66 1806 69 2138

Figure 6 reveals that the Total Coliform Rule is 

the rule violated by the highest percentage of 

community water systems, with more than 5% 

or more of community water systems in all 

size categories reporting MCL violations. Total 

Coliform Rule MCL violations were reported by 

5.7% of small community water systems, and 

by 6.2% of both medium and large community 

water systems. Significant violations of Total 

Coliform Rule monitoring and reporting 

requirements were reported at slightly more 

than 12% of small community water systems, 

but at only 2% of medium and large 

community water systems. 

Figures 7 - 9, which display the population 

served by violating community water systems, 

indicate that at small or medium community 

water systems, reported violations of the Total 

Coliform Rule potentially affected more people 

than MCL or treatment technique violations of 

all the other rules combined. Figure 7 shows 

that 4.8% of the population served by small 

community water systems and 6.6% of the 

population served by mediumsystems were 

served by systems that reported violations of 

the Total Coliform Rule MCL. In 1997, the 

population served by small and medium 

systems in violation of the Total Coliform Rule 

MCL was about 2.8 million people. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 12 
FIGURE 6: PERCENTAGE OF COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS WITH LCR VIOLATIONS 

(Note: The absolute number presented on the bars represent the total number of 

violations for the systems.) 

5.7% 

12.0% 

6.0% 

2.0% 

6.0% 

2.0% 

0% 

2% 

4% 

6% 

8% 

10% 

12% 

14% 

Small Medium Large 

MCL Violations M/R Violations 

4093 11608 335 125 305 87

FIGURE 7: POPULATION AFFECTED BY VIOLATIONS IN SMALL

COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS

36,597 

694,461 

620,444 

205,297 

1,187,373 

1,741,363 

303,201 

734,943 

0 

200,000 

400,000 

600,000 

800,000 

1,000,000 

1,200,000 

1,400,000 

1,600,000 

1,800,000 

LCR SWTR TCR Chemical 

MCL or TRT Violation M/R Violation 

<1% 2.8% 2.5% 0.8% 4.7% 7% 1.2% 2.9% 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 13 
FIGURE 8: POPULATION AFFECTED BY VIOLATIONS IN MEDIUM

COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS

35,754 

326,065 

759,130 

161,372 

1,660,374 

561,428 

233,203 

903,190 

0 

200,000 

400,000 

600,000 

800,000 

1,000,000 

1,200,000 

1,400,000 

1,600,000 

1,800,000 

LCR SWTR TCR Chemical 

MCL or TRT Violation M/R Violation 

<1% 1.3% 3% <1% 6.6% 2.2% <1% 3.6% 

As shown in Figure 9, simply by virtue of large 

community water systems’size, violations at 

these systems can potentially affect large 

populations. In 1997, more than 7 million 

people were served water by large systems that 

reported MCL violations of the Total Coliform 

Rule. Most of those 7 million Americans 

received water from a handful of very large 

systems. 

Similarly, 93% of the more than 19 million 

Americans whose community water system 

reported a violation of the Surface Water 

Treatment Rule treatment technique 

requirements received their drinking water 

from a large community water system. 

However, few small and medium community 

water systems rely of surface water as the 

source of their drinking water, and 

mostcommunity water systems subject to the 

Surface Water Treatment Rule are large. 

Because of the violations at our largest 

community water systems have the potential 

to 

affect large populations, EPA sometimes 

imposes additional requirements on these 

systems. The Lead and Copper Rule required 

all large systems to install corrosion control. 

Small and medium systems are required to 

install corrosion control only after the level of 

lead or copper in their water is shown to 

exceed an action level. The Lead and Copper 

Rule gave large systems less time than small 

and medium systems to meet its requirements. 

The Surface Water Treatment Rule focused on 

a number of the largest water systems in 

America requiring these systems to install 

filtration by 1993. For a variety of reasons, 

including planning, design and construction 

of the complex infrastructure needed to install 

filtration, this has taken longer than 

anticipated. As a result, violations of the 

health-based standards of either rule were 

more likely to occur at large community water 

systems, and the populations potentially 

affected by those violations were inevitably 

large. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 14 
FIGURE 9: POPULATION AFFECTED BY VIOLATIONS IN LARGE

COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS

276,118 

3,696,334 

17,980,614 

2,551,960 

7,138,429 

3,362,211 

2,183,067 

4,873,180 

0 

2,000,000 

4,000,000 

6,000,000 

8,000,000 

10,000,000 

12,000,000 

14,000,000 

16,000,000 

18,000,000 

20,000,000 

LCR SWTR TCR Chemical 

MCL or TRT Violation M/R Violation 

<1% 1.8% 8.9% 1.3% 3.5% 1.7% 1.1% 2.4% 

NON-COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS 

Non-community water systems are classified 

as either non-transient non-community 

systems or transient non-community systems. 

1. NON-TRANSIENT NON-COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS 

Approximately 76% of all non-transient noncommunity water systems reported no MCL or 

treatment technique violations and no 

significant monitoring and reporting violations 

in 1997. The vast majority (95%) of the 20,255 

non-transient non-community water systems 

operating during 1997 reported no violations 

of health-based standards. More than 79% 

had no significant violation of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. As is apparent in 

Figure 10, most of the violations that were 

reported were significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. If the 

compliance rate for monitoring and reporting 

were to improve, it is possible that more MCL 

violations would be detected and the 

percentage of non-transient non-community 

systems that report violations of heath-based 

standards would increase. 

General findings for non-transient 

non-community water systems are: 

• Of the MCL and treatment technique 

requirements violations reported, more 

systems violated the Total Coliform Rule 

than the other rules, with nearly 4% of 

the systems reporting an MCL violation 

of the Total Coliform Rule. 

• Significant violations of the monitoring 

and reporting requirements were more 

common at non-transient noncommunity water systems than at 

community water systems, with 13% of 

non-transient non-community systems 

responsible for significant violations of 

the monitoring and reporting 

requirements of the Total Coliform Rule, 

more than 8% responsible for significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements of a chemical standard, 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 15 
FIGURE 10: PERCENTAGE OF NTNC SYSTEMS WITH VIOLATIONS 

(Note: The absolute number presented on the bars represent the total number of violations for the systems.) 

0.4 

8.2 

4.0 

13.1 

0.2 0.1 0.2 

4.6 

0.0 

2.0 

4.0 

6.0 

8.0 

10.0 

12.0 

14.0 

Percentage of Systems 

Chemical TCR SWTR LCR 

Type of Violation 

MCL or TT Violation M/R Violation 

117 13761 1117 3950 130 33 34 473

and

more

than

4%

responsible

for

significant violations of monitoring and

reporting requirements of the Lead and

Copper Rule. 

2. TRANSIENT NON-COMMUNITY WATER 

SYSTEMS 

Because people served water by transient noncommunity water systems do not drink the 

water regularly or for long periods, the nation's 

95,754 transient non-community water 

systems are required to comply with only those 

standards that protect consumers from acute 

health effects— the Total Coliform Rule, some 

of the chemical contaminant standards, and 

the Surface Water Treatment Rules. Only 

2.1% of transient non-community water 

systems used surface water as a source in 

1997, and none reported violations of the 

Surface Water Treatment Rule. 

As shown in Figure 11, almost 81% of 

transient non-community systems reported 

neither MCL or treatment technique violations, 

nor significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 96% reported no 

violations of MCL or treatment technique 

requirements, and 83% had no significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• The health-based standards for the Total 

Coliform were those most frequently 

violated by transient non-community 

systems, 3.6% of which reported a 

violation of the MCL. 

• 7% of transient non-community water 

systems had a significant violation of the 

monitoring and reporting requirements 

of a chemical standard. As with nontransient non-community water systems, 

improved compliance with monitoring 

requirements could lead to the detection 

of more MCL and treatment technique 

violations, and an increase in the 

percentage of systems reporting 

violations of health-based standards. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 16 
1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 17 
FIGURE 11: PERCENTAGE OF TNC SYSTEMS WITH VIOLATIONS 

(Note: The absolute number presented on the bars represent the total number of violations for the systems.) 

0.2 

7.1 

3.6 

12.9 

0.2 0.1 

0.0 

2.0 

4.0 

6.0 

8.0 

10.0 

12.0 

14.0 

Percentage of Systems 

Chemical TCR SWTR 

Type of Violation 

MCL or TT Violation M/R Violation 

243 7489 4684 19266 333 488

VARIANCE AND EXEMPTIONS 

There are very few PWSs currently operating 

under a variance or exemption. Neither the 

State PWS compliance reports for 1997 nor the 

SDWIS/FED database reported any variance or 

exemption violations during 1997. 

QUALITY OF DATA 

This report used compliance data taken from 

EPA's` national SDWIS/FED database. States 

are required to submit data to SDWIS/FED 

quarterly. EPA assesses progress in the 

implementation of regulations, develops its 

national enforcement and compliance 

priorities and strategies, and provides 

information to the public based, in part, on 

analysis of the data in SDWIS/FED. 

Most States, on the other hand, develop a 

database system that tracks more information 

than that contained in SDWIS/FED. State 

data systems often track monitoring results, 

compliance assistance activities, and 

enforcement actions. Most States used their 

own data system in developing their State 

compliance reports. 

Because the SDWIS/FED database relies on 

data provided by the States, one may expect 

that these numbers should be comparable to 

those in the States' own data systems. 

Unfortunately, this was not the case with 

many States. As with any large, complex 

database network, there are numerous 

difficulties in uploading data and correcting 

identified problems. 

Comparison of State and SDWIS/FED data 

revealed both over and under-reporting by 

States into SDWIS/FED across all rules, with 

State data showing more violations than 

SDWIS/FED on a national basis. State 

chemical MCL and monitoring and reporting 

violations were virtually identical to 

information in SDWIS/FED. The rule with the 

greatest discrepancy rate was the Lead and 

Copper Rule. SDWIS/FED contained almost 

three times as many Lead and Copper 

monitoring and reporting violations as the 

State reports. Most of this discrepancy, 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 18 
however, can be attributed to six States. 

SDWIS/FED data for Lead and Copper 

treatment technique violations is less than half 

of what States reported for these violations. 

EPA periodically conducts data verifications 

(independent, on-site audits of State records) 

of State programs to ensure that the State is 

determining compliance in accordance with 

Federal regulations and to detect differences 

between data in the State database and 

SDWIS/FED. Data verifications show larger 

discrepancies by States in reporting on 

non-community water systems than for other 

types, particularly in the area of significant 

monitoring violations. 

There are many reasons for these data 

discrepancies, including: 

• SDWIS/FED is a complex database. 

Data entry procedures in SDWIS/FED 

are cumbersome and data retrieval is not 

user friendly. 

• States use different data systems and 

designs. 

• Data management and analysis of 

SDWIS/FED data is generally a lower 

priority for some States and Regional 

Offices. This lack of emphasis frequently 

leads to insufficient training, poor 

coordination among program and data 

managers, and situations where the 

responsibility for management of data 

systems does not lie with the people who 

use and need the data. 

EPA is working with the States to improve the 

reporting system and to reduce data 

discrepancies to the maximum extent possible. 

Some of the activities underway are: 

• EPA, in cooperation with the States, is 

developing a State data system known as 

SDWIS/STATE. It is intended to improve 

data quality and data transfers between 

States and EPA. Ten States and four 

EPA regions currently have SDWIS/ 

STATE installed. Within the next year, 

nine more States, two territories, and 

three more EPA Regions will be using 

SDWIS/STATE to transfer data to 

SDWIS/FED. 

• EPA is: 

S Improving data entry by updating and 

streamlining documentation and 

training materials. 

S Preparing Quality Assurance manuals 

for use by States and Regions. 

S Investigating mechanisms for making 

data retrieval more user friendly. EPA 

is also using the database to track 

progress toward meeting performance 

measures and making SDWIS/FED 

information publicly available through 

its web site, Envirofacts. EPA is 

revising how the data are displayed in 

Envirofacts to make the data easier to 

access. As the database is used more, 

and becomes easier to use, States will 

have a greater incentive to improve 

the quality of data in it. 

S Conducting data verifications in many 

States each year and following up on 

the results to be sure the 

recommendations are implemented. 

One of the components of these 

verifications is to identify 

discrepancies between the State 

system and SDWIS/FED. 

EVALUATION AND SUMMARY OF 

STATE REPORTS 

EPA received 1997 Annual State Public Water 

System Reports from 51 primacy States, 

Commonwealths, and Territories. EPA 

prepared reports for the District of Columbia 

and Wyoming, and provided data on Indian 

Tribes, because these areas do not have 

primary enforcement responsibility for the 

drinking water program. 

This report presents the evaluation of these 

annual reports in three subsections: 

• State enforcement and compliance 

assistance programs 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 19 
• Information on the State reports 

• State-by-State summaries 

STATE ENFORCEMENT AND 

COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE 

PROGRAMS 

States engage in a variety of activities, 

including formal enforcement actions, informal 

actions, and compliance and technical 

assistance to help PWSs remain in, and return 

to, compliance. Additionally, SDWA requires 

that States have operator certification 

programs that require many PWS operators to 

be licensed by the appropriate authorities. 

State enforcement and compliance assistance 

efforts may include: 

• Conducting on-site visits and sanitary 

surveys at PWSs (i.e., an on-site review 

of the water sources, facilities, 

equipment, operations, and maintenance 

of a PWS to evaluate the adequacy of 

these elements for producing and 

distributing safe drinking water) 

• Helping systems invest in preventive 

measures 

• Providing financial assistance for system 

improvements through the Drinking 

Water State Revolving Fund and other 

State funding programs 

• Reviewing water system plans and 

specifications 

• Conducting training sessions 

• Holding public information meetings 

• Loaning specialized monitoring 

equipment 

• Publishing informational bulletins and 

newsletters on training events, etc. 

Unless there is an immediate health risk 

necessitating immediate action, formal 

enforcement actions may be initiated several 

months after the violation is detected and 

reported. The reason for this delay is that, 

when appropriate, States commonly undertake 

a variety of informal actions and compliance 

assistance measures to try to get PWSs back 

into compliance as quickly as possible. 

Informal actions may include the following 

activities: 

• Compliance reminder letters or notices of 

violations 

• Field visits 

• Telephone calls 

Formal enforcement actions may include the 

following activities: 

• Bilateral compliance agreements 

• Citations 

• Administrative orders 

• Criminal complaints with penalties 

• Civil referrals to State Attorneys General 

or to the Department of Justice 

• Emergency orders 

• Criminal cases 

• Fines or administrative penalties 

• Other sanctions such as denying 

permission for system expansion 

In fiscal year 1997, the States issued a total of 

913 formal enforcement actions, including 632 

administrative orders without penalty, 220 

administrative orders with penalty, 60 civil 

referrals, and 1 criminal referral. During the 

same period, EPA issued 266 notices of 

violation, 392 Federal administrative orders, 

12 complaints for penalty, and 4 referrals for 

civil judicial action. 

In conclusion, States can choose among a 

number of formal and informal activities to 

return violating systems to compliance and 

ensure that the public has safe drinking water. 

While EPA did not analyze compliance 

assistance and enforcement data in its first 

two national reports, it may do so in future 

reports. EPA encourages States to include this 

information in future reports to provide a more 

complete picture of PWS compliance. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 20 
INFORMATION ON STATE 

REPORTS 

EPA reviewed each State report to determine 

whether it met the requirements of the 1996 

Amendments to SDWA. The contents of the 

State reports are summarized in Table 4 in 

Appendix B. The table indicates whether a 

report was submitted to EPA, whether all 

required elements of the report were included, 

and whether the State included a list of PWSs 

with MCL violations or treatment technique 

violations. The chart also includes a column 

indicating if information was provided on the 

public availability and distribution of State 

reports. Publication and distribution of 

summaries of the report and indication of 

where the full report is available for public 

review is a statutory requirement of the 1996 

SDWA Amendments. This summary chart also 

indicates whether the State's report included 

any additional information of interest to the 

public, such as the number of public water 

systems in the State, their sizes and types: the 

size and type of violating systems, and the 

compliance assistance and enforcement 

activities undertaken in response to violations. 

STATE BY STATE SUMMARIES 

EPA provides a State-by-State summary of 

information reported in each State report in 

Appendix B. The standardized format includes 

an overall summary of the violations data 

specified in Section 1414 of the 1996 SDWA 

Amendments (i.e., violations with respect to 

MCLs, treatment technique violations, 

significant monitoring and reporting violations, 

and variances and exemptions). Information 

on how and where to obtain a copy of each 

State report has been included on the 

respective summary chart. 

In some instances, the data reported by a 

State in July of 1998 may not agree with data 

currently in SDWIS/FED. EPA and the States 

have been engaged in an ongoing SDWIS/FED 

data reliability effort that has resulted in the 

insertion since July of 1998 of updated and 

corrected information into SDWIS/FED. 

These State summaries in Appendix B 

summarize, but do not interpret the data 

submitted by the States. EPA does not 

confirm that the States have fully reported all 

violations. Readers should view the violations 

data provided in the State summaries in the 

context of each specific State and its individual 

drinking water program. Although PWSs are 

required to report all violations to the State, 

States vary in the areas their programs choose 

to emphasize. Thus, the fact that a State 

reported a large number of violations for a 

particular rule (e.g., the Lead and Copper 

Rule), may only indicate that the State devoted 

more attention and resources to that rule than 

to other rules and, as such, the data reported 

are more complete than the data another State 

reported showing fewer violations of the same 

rule. 

A list of all PWSs having either MCL or 

treatment technique violations in 1997 has 

also been developed by many States and 

provided by States to EPA. Copies of these 

lists will be available from EPA's Safe Drinking 

Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791. 

CONCLUSIONS AND ACTIVITIES 

TO ADDRESS 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

As stated above, the nation's drinking water is 

generally safe. The vast majority of Americans 

received water from systems that reported 

violations of neither MCL and treatment 

technique requirements nor significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

The following recommendations address the 

significant challenges that remain as EPA, 

States, and Tribes work to improve compliance 

with the SDWA Amendments of 1996. 

Because only six months has elapsed since the 

issuance of EPA’s first national PWS 

Compliance report for calendar year 1996, the 

recommendations of the two reports are the 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 21 
same. 

Most of the recommendations involve 

coordinated effort on the part of EPA and 

States, or EPA and Indian Tribes, to address 

violations of a specific type or to improve the 

collection and maintenance of compliance 

data. As detailed in the discussion that 

follows, many of the activities underway to 

implement the SDWA Amendments of 1996 are 

directly responsive to these recommendations. 

1. ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE 

ASSISTANCE RECOMMENDATIONS 

REGARDING PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS IN 

STATES 

• States and EPA should work together 

to address significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• States and EPA should work together 

to address violations of MCL and 

treatment technique requirements. 

• States and EPA should work together 

to address violations at noncommunity water systems. 

EPA and the States are working to address 

these recommendations on a number of fronts. 

Improving compliance requires a mix of 

compliance assistance, capacity building 

activities, and targeted enforcement activities. 

A key part of improving compliance with both 

health-based standards and monitoring and 

reporting requirements is ensuring that 

operators of public water systems have the 

information and the training they need to do 

their jobs properly. The 1996 Amendments 

provided funding to support nine technology 

assistance centers to help small systems with 

training, technical assistance, and technology 

demonstrations. Additionally, EPA and the 

States facilitate compliance with existing 

drinking water requirements by conducting 

numerous compliance assistance activities, 

such as on-site visits and development and 

distribution of plain English guides and 

checklists on regulatory requirements. EPA, 

with its State and drinking water stakeholder 

partners, are also working pro-actively to 

ensure that the operators of public water 

systems understand and are prepared to 

comply with new requirements, like Consumer 

Confidence Reports, and new standards, like 

the Disinfection By-products Rule. EPA is 

using the new Local Government 

Environmental Assistance Network (LGEAN )as 

an interactive platform to provide free 

information on current and developing SDWA 

requirements. LGEAN provides information 

and compliance tools to anyone with Internet 

or telephone access, and gives anyone with 

Internet or telephone access an avenue for 

conveying questions and comments to EPA. 

Making drinking water compliance information 

readily available to the public is another 

aspect of improving compliance at public water 

systems. The annual public water systems 

compliance reports prepared by States and by 

EPA are just one aspect of this effort. The 

public will also receive Consumer Confidence 

Reports annually from their community water 

systems and, if necessary, more timely notice 

of MCL or treatment technique violations as 

required by the Public Notification Rule. The 

three Internet sites mentioned earlier in this 

report provide public access to a wealth of 

drinking water compliance information. 

Putting this information on display both 

informs the public and provides an incentive 

for the operators of water systems and for 

drinking water regulators to achieve and 

maintain the high levels of compliance that the 

public demands. 

Consistently achieving a high level of 

compliance can be a greater challenge for 

small public water systems that may lack the 

financial, technical, or managerial resources 

available to medium and large systems. By 

enacting new compliance assistance tools 

created by the 1996 Amendments, EPA and 

the States are helping small communities 

overcome these impediments. Among the 

important new developments: a list of 

approved small system compliance 

technologies that allows more flexibility in 

treating drinking water, and revised variance 

and exemption rules that allow EPA and States 

to provide small systems some flexibility in 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 22 
how and when they will meet drinking water 

requirements. 

With capacity development programs, 

particularly those tied to the Drinking Water 

State Revolving Fund, EPA and the States are 

helping small systems overcome the root 

causes of noncompliance— the often 

intractable problems of deficient 

infrastructure, untrained operators, and 

inadequate financing. Financial assistance 

from this fund will improve compliance at the 

46,473 small community water systems and at 

the 115,602 non-community water systems, 

99.7% of which serve fewer than 3,300 people. 

Congress appropriated $2.8 billion through 

Fiscal year 1999 for the Drinking Water State 

Revolving Fund this purpose. Diligent efforts 

by the States ensured that every State had an 

approved program for implementing its 

Drinking Water State Revolving Fund in place 

before the end of 1998 and had begun 

receiving capitalization grants. 

Enforcement will always be part of a credible 

regulatory program. State and Federal 

enforcement actions against noncomplying 

public water systems both discourage 

violations and level the playing field for those 

systems that devote resources to remaining in 

compliance. Although public water systems of 

all types need to know that violations can and 

will result in enforcement actions, EPA and the 

States will target particular kinds of systems 

and violations posing the greatest risks to 

protect public health. Required source water 

assessments are a potential tool to help EPA 

and its partners identify and evaluate threats 

to the sources of drinking water and address 

them with appropriate compliance and 

enforcement efforts 

EPA is meeting with States and other drinking 

water stakeholders seeking input that will help 

the Agency formulate the most effective 

strategy for implementing the 

recommendations in its first two annual 

reports. EPA will refine its recommendations 

in future annual reports by integrating the 

data improvements that result from the 

ongoing data reliability efforts discussed 

below. EPA plans to incorporate the resulting 

implementation commitments into its 

Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) with EPA 

Regions, and has identified the control of 

microbial contamination as priority across all 

enforcement programs. The Regions can in 

turn use these priorities when negotiating 

Performance Partnership Agreements with 

their States. 

2. RECOMMENDATION CONCERNING DATA 

QUALITY 

• EPA and drinking water stakeholders 

should work cooperatively to improve 

the quality of compliance data. 

This is the recommendation on which EPA has 

focused the most effort since the issuance of 

the 1996 National Public Water Systems 

Report in September of 1998. During 

preparation of that report, EPA noted that 

compliance data in many individual state 

reports differed from the data reported to 

SDWIS/FED. In fall of 1998, EPA held a series 

of stakeholder meetings that help identify a 

number of interim and long-term goals. EPA 

and its stakeholders have agreed that the data 

quality goal should be 100% complete, 

accurate, and timely data which portray the 

data submitted by public water systems and 

primacy agencies, consistent with SDWA 

reporting requirements. This goal will be 

advanced through interim milestones, which 

can be set once the current level of quality is 

determined. 

• Improve the display of drinking water 

data in Envirofacts: EPA and its 

stakeholders have agreed to a number of 

changes to improve the way drinking 

water data are portrayed in Envirofacts 

(an EPA web site where the public can 

access information about the 

performance of a public water system). 

Changes which need to be made include: 

displaying only data subsequent to 

January 1, 1993 since these data are 

more accurate than older data, providing 

better description of the data and 

explanations of violations, listing 

MCL/treatment technique violations 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 23 
separately from monitoring violations, 

developing a better way to link violation 

and follow-up actions, and revising the 

compliance period date to indicate more 

accurately the length of the violation. 

• Characterize and quantify the data 

quality problem: EPA and its 

stakeholders will work together to better 

define the data quality problem. 

Activities include comparing the data 

submitted by States in their Annual 

Compliance Reports with the data they 

report to SDWIS/FED, comparing the 

data in SDWIS/FED to the data in 

Envirofacts, asking public water systems 

to identify errors in the SDWIS/FED data 

displayed in Envirofacts, analyzing data 

verification reports to identify generic 

problems and the extent of their 

occurrence, analyzing quarterly 

SDWIS/FED production reports to 

identify data which are rejected, and 

analyzing state management structures 

to determine if there is a relationship 

between management structure and data 

quality. 

• Take interim steps to improve data 

quality: While the characterization and 

quantification effort is underway, EPA 

and its stakeholders agreed that there 

are numerous activities which could be 

undertaken to improve the quality of 

data currently in SDWIS/FED and newly 

entering data. Activities to improve the 

quality of data feeding into SDWIS/FED 

include: developing a mechanism for 

utilities to review data before states send 

data to SDWIS/FED; streamlining 

reporting requirements for upcoming 

rules; accelerating the implementation of 

electronic reporting; conducting more 

frequent data verifications and following 

up on their recommendations; involving 

data management staff in rule 

development, working with state and 

regional management structures from 

the perspective of maximizing data 

quality; and improving record keeping 

and reporting of compliance information 

on Indian lands. Activities to improve 

quality of data in SDWIS/FED include 

correcting software bugs, accelerating 

development and implementation of 

SDWIS/STATE, providing additional 

error check routines in SDWIS/FED, 

improving existing data entry tools, 

ensuring that quarterly submissions are 

reviewed and errors are corrected, 

issuing quality assurance manuals for 

Regions and States, and facilitating data 

retrieval. 

• Make long-term commitment to 

achieve and maintain data quality 

goals: Upon completion of the 

characterization and quantification 

effort, EPA and its partners will take the 

actions identified as necessary to ensure 

that the data quality goal that the data in 

SDWIS/FED achieves 100% 

completeness, accuracy, and timeliness 

in portraying the data submitted by 

public water systems and primacy 

agencies. EPA and its partners will also 

take the actions necessary to maintain 

those levels. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems in States April 1999 — Page 24 
Public Water Systems on Indian 

INTRODUCTION 

This section of the 1997 National Annual 

Public Water Systems Compliance Report 

provides information on the compliance status 

of public water systems (PWSs) on Indian 

reservations for calendar year 1997. This is 

the second report issued pursuant to section 

1414(c)(3)(B) of SDWA as amended in 1996. 

EPA issued the first report on September 3, 

1998, for calendar year 1996. 

ROLE OF OTHER FEDERAL 

AGENCIES 

EPA is only one of the Federal agencies 

implementing the drinking water program at 

PWSs on Tribal reservations. Other agencies 

involved in this process include the Indian 

Health Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 

and the Bureau of Reclamation. The Indian 

Health Service provides a comprehensive 

health services delivery system for American 

Indians and Alaska Natives along with the 

opportunity for maximum Tribal involvement 

in developing and managing programs to meet 

health needs. 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is the primary 

Federal agency fulfilling the United States' 

trust responsibilities to Tribes and Native 

Villages. The Bureau of Indian Affairs works 

with Tribal managers in protecting and 

managing trust resources. As the bureau 

expands its involvement in environmental 

management, it will work with Tribes, Alaska 

Native Villages, and other Federal agencies, 

such as EPA and the Indian Health Service, to 

help PWSs on Indian reservations stay in 

compliance. 

The Bureau of Reclamation provides technical 

assistance to Indian Tribes in the management 

of their resources. A number of projects have 

been designed to improve water quality on 

During calendar year 1997, there were 728 

community water systems, 77 non-transient 

non-community water systems, and 125 

transient non-community water systems 

located on Indian lands. 

These 930 public water systems served a 

population of approximately 475,000 

people. 

Most of these systems were small and 

served fewer than 500 people. 

There were no public water systems on 

Indian lands that served more than 100,000 

people. 

Only two Tribal water systems served 

populations of more than 10,000 people. 

Indian reservations. 

PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS ON 

INDIAN RESERVATIONS 

Tribes are eligible to receive primary 

enforcement responsibility (primacy) to 

administer their drinking water program. 

Because no Tribe has received primacy to date, 

EPA implements the drinking water program 

on all Indian lands. (See Figure 12) 

COMPLIANCE DATA 

The national drinking water database, the Safe 

Drinking Water Information System 

(SDWIS/FED), was the primary source of 

information for this report. The EPA Regional 

Offices are responsible for updating the 

SDWIS/FED database and keeping 

information in SDWIS/FED accurate and 

up-to-date. 

In developing the first report, EPA found that 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 25 
inventory and violations data for 1996 were also 

not fully reported in SDWIS/FED. This was 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 26
FIGURE 12: MAP OF INDIAN LANDS

Indian Lands 

the case for 1997 data, but the ongoing efforts 

of EPA’s Regional Offices have resulted in a 

much more complete and accurate database 

for this second report. Data management for 

compliance information is now an EPA priority. 

To address this priority, EPA is working to 

improve its Tribal compliance data by 

improving the inventory of PWSs located on 

Indian reservations. 

Compliance figures for Alaska Native Villages 

are not included in this section of the report. 

They are included in the State report for the 

State of Alaska. Other Tribal systems may also 

be included in State reports. Oklahoma 

includes these systems in its State inventory. 

However, the discussion on financial 

assistance and conclusions and 

recommendations in this section are 

applicable to all American Indian and Alaska 

Native water systems. 

COMPLIANCE ANALYSIS 

In 1997, 500 of the 930 public water systems 

on Indian reservations recorded violations. 

The number PWSs violating provisions of the 

chemical rules, the Total Coliform Rule, and 

the Surface Water Treatment Rule are shown 

in figure 13. No violations of the Lead and 

Copper Rule were reported in 1997 at public 

water systems on Indian reservations. of EPA’s 

analysis of the data produced the following 

notable findings: 

At 46% of public water systems located on 

Indian reservations, there were neither 

reported violations of health-based 

standards nor significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

• 48% of community water systems 

located on Indian reservations had no 

reported violations of MCL or treatment 

technique requirements and no 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 27 
FIGURE 13: NUMBER OF TRIBAL PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS

REPORTING VIOLATIONS

1 

58 

70 

209 

10 8 

0 0 

0 

50 

100 

150 

200 

250 

Chemical TCR SWTR LCR 

Type of Violation 

MCL M /R 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 40% of non-transient non-community 

water systems located on Indian 

reservations had no reported violations 

of MCL or treatment technique 

requirements and no significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• 39% of transient non-community 

systems located on Indian reservations 

had no reported violations of MCL or 

treatment technique requirements and 

no significant violations of monitoring 

and reporting requirements. 

89% of public water systems located on 

Indian reservations had no reported 

violations of health-based MCL or treatment 

technique requirements. 

• 89% of community water systems 

located on Indian reservations had no 

reported 

• MCL or treatment technique violations. 

• 89% of non-transient non-community 

water systems located on Indian 

reservations had no reported MCL or 

treatment technique violations. 

• 90% of transient non-community 

systems located on Indian reservations 

had no reported violations of MCL or 

treatment technique requirements. 

• In all categories of water systems, the 

health-based standard most frequently 

violated (138 of 156 health-based 

standard violations) was the MCL for the 

Total Coliform Rule. 

Most violations at public water systems on 

Indian reservations were significant 

violations of monitoring and reporting 

requirements, not violations of health-based 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 28 
drinking water standards. 

• In 1997, there were 1,040 MCL, 

treatment technique, and significant 

monitoring and reporting violations 

reported by 500 of the 930 public water 

systems located on Indian reservations. 

• 156 (15%) were violations of MCL and 

treatment technique requirements. 

• 884 (85%) were significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

Even so, 66% of public water systems 

located on Indian reservations had no 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 68% of community water systems 

located on Indian reservations had no 

significant violations of monitoring and 

reporting requirements. 

• 57% of non-transient non-community 

water systems located on Indian 

reservations had no significant violations 

of monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

• 62% of transient non-community water 

systems located on Indian reservations 

had no significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

• Violations of the monitoring and 

reporting requirements of the Total 

Coliform rule accounted for 723 of the 

884 significant monitoring and reporting 

violations at public water systems on 

Indian reservations in 1997. 

98% of all public water systems located on 

Indian reservations served 3,300 or fewer 

people. 

• 709 of the 728 community water systems 

located on Indian reservations served 

3,300 or fewer people. Only one 

community water system served more 

than 10,000 people. 

• All 77 non-transient non-community 

water systems located on Indian 

reservations served fewer than 3,300 

people. 

• Only one of the 125 transient noncommunity water systems located on 

Indian reservations served more than 

3,300 people. 

COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE AND 

ENFORCEMENT 

EPA is responsible for ensuring PWS 

compliance with SDWA regulations on Indian 

reservations and uses multiple approaches to 

facilitate compliance. This report also provides 

information on EPA's compliance assistance 

program not generally represented in the 

SDWIS/FED database. 

EPA's tribal compliance assistance program 

includes training sessions for PWSs, 

newsletters containing information specific to 

Tribal PWS interests, field presence, and other 

types of support activities that provided 

needed information for compliance. Technical 

assistance is a key component of EPA 

compliance assistance activities. Technical 

assistance includes circuit riders -- expert 

operators -- who provide direct on-site support 

to PWS operators and managers. This 

assistance can include site visits, telephone 

calls, mailings, and hotlines. A circuit rider 

promotes knowledge of drinking water 

regulations through his presence in the field, 

provides technical assistance to Tribes, and 

builds cooperative working relationships with 

EPA. 

EPA coordinates many of these compliance 

assistance activities with the Indian Health 

Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Rural 

Water Association, and the Rural Community 

Assistance Program. In many cases, EPA 

provides information on updated monitoring 

and reporting requirements, such as a yearly 

monitoring requirement letter customized for 

PWSs located within each reservation in a 

Region. 

EPA is also responsible for initiating 

enforcement actions against owners or 

operators of PWSs if a PWS is not in 

compliance with SDWA. EPA uses several 

types of formal enforcement actions against 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 29 
PWSs, including administrative orders, 

settlement agreements, and civil and criminal 

referrals to the Department of Justice. EPA 

also uses informal enforcement actions to 

return PWSs to compliance. 

The "EPA Policy for the Administration of 

Environmental Programs on Indian 

Reservations" guides the Agency's approach to 

bringing administrative or judicial enforcement 

actions on Indian reservations. Although EPA 

does initiate formal enforcement responses in 

circumstances where such actions are 

appropriate, in most cases, EPA relies on 

informal enforcement actions and compliance 

assistance to facilitate a Tribal public water 

system's return to compliance. 

EPA uses a wide array of informal enforcement 

actions on Indian reservations to return PWSs 

to compliance. These activities are directed 

toward PWS operators, utility managers, and 

tribal government officials. Typical informal 

enforcement actions include: 

• Telephone calls and on-site visits by EPA 

enforcement personnel to discuss 

potential and actual violations; 

• Compliance letters or pre-warning 

violation letters; 

• Informal notices of violations 

Table 3 depicts the numbers of informal 

enforcement actions in relation to the total 

number of PWSs on Indian reservations. The 

largest numbers of informal enforcement 

actions are Federal Violation or Reminder 

Notices. For calendar year 1997, EPA issued 

375 Federal Violation or Reminder Notices. 

TABLE 3: NUMBER OF PWSs ON TRIBAL LANDS WITH VIOLATIONS BY 

RULE 

1996 PWSS AND VIOLATIONS TOTAL NUMBER 

Total Number of PWSs 930 

Total Number of Violations 1040 

Total Number of PWSs with Violations 500 

ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS IN RESPONSE TO VIOLATIONS NUMBER ISSUED 

Federal Violation or Reminder Notice issued by the EPA Regional Offices 375 

Federal public notification to consumers of a PWS regarding violations 71 

Federal Public Notification requested by EPA Regional Offices to be sent to 

consumers of a PWS regarding violations and health risk. 49 

Federal Technical Assistance visit 12 

Federal Notice of Violation issued by EPA Regional Offices. This is usually a formal 

action, however, some Regions use it as an informal action with Tribes. 4 

Federal Penalty Administrative Order issued 3 

Federal Intentional No-Action 3 

Federal 1431 Order 2 

Federal Boil Water Order 2 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 30 
Other 1 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 31 
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE 

EPA provides financial assistance to PWSs on 

Indian reservations in several ways. One 

approach is to build Tribal capacity to manage 

the water systems in compliance with SDWA. 

Capacity building entails providing Tribes with 

grants, training, and program technical 

assistance as they develop their own 

environmental programs. A significant source 

for building capability is through grants 

provided under the General Assistance 

Program. Under a second approach, EPA's 

Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water 

provides funding for specific program 

priorities. Historically, 3% of the 

appropriations for State implementation of the 

Public Water System Supervision program is 

used for implementation of the program on 

Tribal Lands. The funds are used by EPA to 

operate its Tribal Public Water System 

Supervision program. About $2.7 million was 

allotted for implementing the Public Water 

System Supervision program on Tribal lands in 

Fiscal Year 1997. Additionally, a number of 

grants have been awarded to Indian Tribes and 

Tribal Organizations to address various 

aspects of the drinking water program. 

In Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999, EPA received 

$3.8 million, in addition to the 3% set-aside , 

to be used for activities such as: 

• Public Water System Supervision 

Program Primacy Workshops - EPA is 

planning to provide general outreach 

material to all Tribes eligible to pursue 

primary enforcement responsibility. 

• Capacity Development - EPA is providing 

funds for Tribal capacity development 

projects. 

• Source Water Protection - EPA is 

providing funds for Tribal source water 

protection projects. 

• Operator Certification - EPA is 

developing a voluntary Operator 

Certification Program for Tribes and will 

use funds to provide operator training 

and certification to Tribal operators. 

Examples of additional support provided by 

Regional Offices include circuit rider programs 

to help Tribes develop self-supporting PWSs on 

Indian reservations, conducting laboratory 

analysis of samples for monitoring, and 

awarding grants to address operator training 

and wellhead protection. 

In the 1996 Amendments to SDWA, an 

infrastructure funding program was 

established to improve water supplies. Each 

year, 1.5 percent of the appropriation for the 

national Drinking Water State Revolving Fund 

program will be set aside as grants to improve 

infrastructure for water systems on Indian 

reservations and in Alaska Native Villages. 

The initial set-aside from the 1997 

appropriation amounted to $19.25 million, an 

additional $10.87 million was set-aside from 

the 1998 appropriation, and $11.625 million 

was set-aside from the 1999 appropriation. 

The 1995 EPA appropriations bill authorized 

drinking water and wastewater grants to the 

State of Alaska for the benefit of rural and 

Native villages. Although the authorized $15 

million annual grant, for fiscal years 1997 

through 2000, targets construction needs, a 

portion of the funds can be used to support 

technical assistance and training. 

Additional technical assistance for small PWSs 

is also provided under Section 1442(e) of 

SDWA, which states that a portion of the 

funding appropriated under the section shall 

be used to provide technical assistance to 

small PWSs owned or operated by Indian Tribe. 

For example, EPA currently has two 

cooperative agreements funded under Section 

1442(e) of SDWA with the National Rural 

Water Association and the Rural Community 

Assistance Program to provide support to 

PWSs. 

CONCLUSIONS AND 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

This report shows much the same compliance 

situation as the 1996 report. Approximately 

62% of the public water systems located on 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 32 
Indian reservations had neither a reported 

violation of a health-based standard nor a 

significant violation of a monitoring and 

reporting requirement. Of the 930 public water 

systems on Indian reservations, 91% of the 

public water systems located on Indian 

reservations reported no violations of MCL and 

treatment technique requirements. Closely 

matching the performance of non-Tribal public 

water systems, 84% of the violations on Indian 

reservations were significant violations of 

monitoring and reporting requirements. 

The short interval between the September 

1998 release of the first national report and 

issuance of this second national report gave 

EPA no significant opportunity to implement 

these 

recommendations, and the recommendations 

for the two reports are the same. 

• EPA should take action to improve 

compliance of PWSs on Indian 

reservations 

• EPA should improve its collection and 

maintenance of compliance data for 

public water systems on Indian 

reservations 

Many of the activities described in the section 

of EPA’s national report discussing 

implementation of enforcement and 

compliance assistance recommendations 

regarding public water systems in States will 

also apply to the implementation of the 

recommendations regarding public water 

systems on Indian reservations. Those 

activities that focus on small systems and 

developing small system capacity will be 

particularly applicable, as 75% of the public 

water systems on Indian reservations serve 

fewer than 500 people. A significant source of 

building capacity is through grants provided 

under the General Assistance Program. 

EPA Regional offices provide additional 

support to Tribes in the form of circuit rider 

programs to help Tribes develop 

self-supporting PWSs on Indian reservations, 

free laboratory analysis of samples collected 

during monitoring, and grants to address 

operator training and wellhead protection. 

Rather than responding to violations at tribal 

public water systems with formal enforcement 

actions, EPA focuses on informal enforcement 

responses and compliance assistance to return 

these systems to compliance. EPA’s informal 

enforcement responses typically include 

telephone calls and site visits to counsel 

system operators, compliance letters or 

warning letters, and informal notices of 

violations. 

The 1997 EPA Drinking Water Infrastructure 

Needs Survey highlighted the needs for capital 

improvements for public water systems on 

Indian Reservations. Each year 1.5% of the 

appropriation for the national Drinking Water 

State Revolving Fund is set aside for grants to 

improve infrastructure for water systems on 

Indian reservations and in Alaska Native 

Villages. In 1997, that set-aside was $19.25 

million. Inadequate infrastructure is one of 

the major reasons public water systems on 

Indian reservations fail to meet SDWA 

requirements. 

In Fiscal Year 1997, EPA used $2.7 million, 

3% of all Federal funding to implement the 

Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) 

program, to implement the PWSS program on 

tribal lands. In Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999, 

EPA received an additional $3.8 million to be 

used for Tribal compliance assistance activities 

such as: Public Water System Supervision 

program primacy workshops, capacity 

development projects, source water protection 

- EPA is providing funds for Tribal source 

water protection projects, and operator 

training and certification. 

To ensure that any unique needs of public 

water systems on Indian reservations are met, 

EPA is seeking input from Tribal stakeholders 

as the Agency explores the most effective 

options for implementing the 

recommendations of EPA’s annual reports. 

EPA will work cooperatively with Tribal 

Councils and their water system operators to 

improve compliance with monitoring and 

reporting requirements, particularly for Total 

Coliform Rule and chemical contaminant 

requirements. This can be accomplished 

through compliance assistance efforts, such as 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 33 
increasing EPA's field presence, conducting 

more frequent sanitary surveys, and providing 

technical assistance and enforcement, as 

appropriate. 

EPA will also look for new ways to provide 

effective compliance assistance and technical 

assistance to Tribes, and will improve its own 

inventory of PWSs located on Indian 

reservations to facilitate development of 

programs that foster the environmental 

management infrastructure. 

EPA has already identified problems related to 

the collection and entry into SDWIS/FED of 

information on public water systems on Indian 

reservations. Activities to address those 

problems and ensure the completeness and 

reliability of this data, although focused within 

EPA, will be similar to those described with 

respect to the data quality activities underway 

with respect to State data in SDWIS/FED. 

Activities to implement the enforcement and 

compliance recommendations will be 

incorporated into Memoranda of Agreement 

with EPA Regions that exercise primary 

enforcement authority over tribal lands. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Public Water Systems on Indian Reservations April 1999 — Page 34 
EPA Activities Underway to Implement 

the SDWA Amendments of 1996 

The Clinton Administration has always 

recognized that many tools and resources are 

essential to ensure that Americans have 

drinking water that meets all health standards. 

The SDWA Amendments of 1996 provided 

many new authorities to enable EPA to more 

quickly meet its goal of safe drinking water. 

Now, two and a half years after passage of the 

1996 Amendments, EPA has exercised these 

authorities and finalized every product 

required in the law to date and has done so 

with maximum stakeholder involvement. This 

stakeholder participation included numerous 

public meetings, public review and comment of 

documents, and the help of the National 

Drinking Water Advisory Council and its 

associated working groups. 

PROMOTING PUBLIC 

INFORMATION AND 

INVOLVEMENT 

The public has a right to know what is in its 

drinking water and to participate in decisions 

affecting that drinking water. The 1996 

Amendments include a strong and pervasive 

ethic of public information and involvement, 

and in this second year of implementing the 

Amendments, EPA and its partners have 

produced major tools and undertaken a variety 

of activities to ensure that the public is well 

informed. 

• Consumer Confidence Reports: 

Consumer confidence reports are the 

centerpiece of the right-to-know 

provisions in SDWA. In August 1998, 

EPA promulgated a rule to require 

drinking water systems to provide 

annual reports to their customers on the 

state of their drinking water supply. The 

information contained in these reports 

will enable Americans to make practical, 

knowledgeable decisions about their 

health and their environment. The 

reports also provide a way for the public 

to get more information about other 

provisions required by the 1996 

Amendments such as assessments of 

drinking water source quality. Systems 

will deliver the first of these reports to 

their customers before October 1999. 

Each report must provide consumers 

with the following fundamental 

information about their drinking water: 

The source of the water; a brief summary 

of its susceptibility to contamination 

(based on assessments of drinking water 

source quality that States will complete 

over the next five years); the level (or 

range of levels) of any contaminant found 

in the drinking water, compared with 

EPA’s health-based standard; the likely 

source of that contaminant in the local 

drinking water supply; the potential 

health effects of any contaminant 

detected in violation of an EPA health 

standard; an accounting of any actions a 

system takes to restore safe drinking 

water; an educational statement for 

vulnerable populations, such as 

children, and the effects of certain 

contaminants; educational information 

on nitrate, arsenic, or lead in areas 

where these contaminants are detected 

at levels more than 50% above EPA’s 

standard; and phone numbers for 

additional sources of information, 

including that of the water system and 

EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline. 

• Ensuring Public Access to Additional 

Information: EPA is acting to ensure 

that new information tools are made 

available to the public. This year, EPA 

worked with States and other 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - EPA Activities Underway April 1999 — Page 35 
stakeholders on ways to make the 

results of upcoming source water 

assessments available to the public. 

EPA has formed a Public Right-to-Know 

working group of the National Drinking 

Water Advisory Council to discuss how 

to make drinking water information 

available to the public, and how to 

involve all interested parties in the 

decision-making process. 

• Using the Internet to Increase Public 

Access: EPA has been working over the 

past year to make drinking water 

information available to the public via 

the Internet (http://www.epa. 

gov/safewater). EPA has created and will 

expand a geographic information site 

where consumers will be able to get 

information about their water, including 

their local drinking water supply. This 

will include information on violations of 

drinking water standards, State 

compliance reports, water system 

consumer confidence reports, and State 

drinking water information and contacts. 

EPA has also worked with state 

organizations and every state to create 

source water protection homepages. 

• Preparing for Greater Public 

Involvement: In its effort to develop 

more effective and durable policies, EPA 

has continued to uphold the SDWA ethic 

of public involvement in its decisionmaking processes by holding public 

meetings and providing an opportunity 

for public review of draft documents. By 

maintaining this high level of public 

involvement, resulting in consensus 

building whenever possible, EPA is 

demonstrating on a national level the 

benefits of the types of public 

involvement that the 1996 SDWA 

Amendments also specify extensively for 

States. While SDWA provides States 

with flexibility and substantial Federal 

funding to meet the challenging task of 

building several important new 

programs, it also adds a public 

participation framework to enable States 

to involve their residents in, and 

strengthen the substantive content of, 

their efforts. During the next year, a 

working group will review material to be 

developed for the public, and will 

suggest ways to use this material to 

educate and 

involve more consumers in decisions 

about their drinking water. 

Over the past two years, as EPA has worked 

closely with States to provide guidance and 

implement programs. The Agency has also 

worked to advance statutorily required public 

involvement in key areas such as: State 

decisions on the use of the Drinking Water 

State Revolving Fund for projects and 

programs; development and implementation of 

State source water assessment programs; the 

framing of State programs to strengthen the 

technical, financial, and managerial capacity of 

water systems; and in State consideration of 

variance and exemption requests. 

PROVIDING TOOLS TO STATES, 

TRIBES, AND WATER SYSTEMS 

TO IMPROVE COMPLIANCE 

The 1996 SDWA Amendments gave the nation 

a new approach to drinking water protection 

which focuses attention on the highest public 

health priorities. This includes a holistic 

approach to prevention and protection, an 

emphasis on the public’s right-to-know, and a 

series of building blocks for States and water 

suppliers that can help in implementation. 

Two years after passage of the Amendments, 

most of these building blocks are in place. 

These activities will assist EPA and the States 

as they work to assure compliance with 

drinking water standards. 

• Drinking Water State Revolving Fund 

(DWSRF): The 1996 Amendments 

created the DWSRF to enable States to 

help water systems finance 

infrastructure improvements that are 

needed to solve compliance and public 

health problems. States can also use 

these funds to help systems protect their 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - EPA Activities Underway April 1999 — Page 36 
source water and improve water system 

management. Congress has 

appropriated $2.8 billion for the DWSRF 

through FY’99. By the end of FY’98, 

every State had a DWSRF program 

approved by EPA, and had received at 

least its first 

commitment of funds (“capitalization 

grant”). 

• Capacity Development: Capacity refers 

to the technical, financial, and 

managerial capability of a water system 

to plan for, achieve, and maintain 

compliance with drinking water 

standards. Capacity development is a 

State effort to help drinking water 

systems improve their finances, 

management, infrastructure, and 

operations so they can provide safe 

drinking water consistently, reliably, and 

cost-effectively. Many small drinking 

water systems have difficulty complying 

with some of the complex provisions of 

SDWA because their capacity is often 

constrained by their limited economies of 

scale. The new SDWA has several 

features with great potential to increase 

system capacity, and thereby correct and 

prevent noncompliance. In August 

1998, EPA released guidance and 

information to help States work together 

with water systems to carry out new 

capacity development provisions from 

the law, including a requirement that 

States have authority to prevent the 

formation of new public water systems 

that lack the capability to operate and 

manage a drinking water system. States 

must also implement a strategy to help 

existing systems develop the capability 

to operate and maintain their system 

and ensure long-term compliance. 

• Water System Operator Certification: 

Operator competency is critical to the 

protection of public health and 

maintenance of safe, effective, and 

reliable water treatment plants and 

distribution lines. In March 1998, EPA 

published in the Federal Register for 

public comment a set of “Draft 

Guidelines for the Certification and 

Recertification of the Operators of 

Community and Non-transient 

Noncommunity Public Water Systems.” 

These guidelines were developed through 

a partnership with States, water 

systems, and the public. In February 

1999, EPA issued final guidelines for 

States to use in making changes to their 

operator certification programs. 

• Source Water Protection: The first step 

in a multiple barrier approach to 

drinking water protection is preventing 

contamination of drinking water sources. 

This avoids the need to pay for costly 

treatment to remove contamination after 

it occurs. In August 1997, EPA issued 

source water assessment and protection 

guidance for States to use to complete 

source water assessments for their 

public water systems. States, water 

systems, and the public can work 

together using Federal funding to protect 

the highest priority sources identified in 

the assessments. During this past year, 

States have been working diligently to 

prepare their assessment programs, 

which were due to EPA by February 

1999. The state of Kentucky submitted 

a program which EPA approved in 

September 1998. 

• Proposed Regulation for Underground 

Injection Control Class V Wells: Some 

shallow waste disposal wells pose a 

threat to underground sources of 

drinking water. On July 17, 1998, EPA 

issued a proposal in the Federal Register 

to regulate specific types of high-risk 

wells, such as large cesspools, motor 

vehicle wells, and industrial wells, 

located in source water protection areas 

for systems using ground water. When 

finalized in 1999, this regulation will give 

States a new tool for source water 

protection efforts. 

• Support for Indian Tribes: The 

problems facing public water systems 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - EPA Activities Underway April 1999 — Page 37 
located on Indian reservations are 

significant. Many of the systems face 

challenges related to their small size 

(75% of systems serve populations of 

fewer than 500 people) and limited 

sources of revenue. Many of the tools 

discussed above include funding and 

provisions to address the special 

problems of these public water systems. 

In addition, the 1996 SDWA 

Amendments provided that 1.5% of the 

amount appropriated for the DWSRF 

program be made available to water 

systems on Tribal lands in the form of 

grants. This translated into $30 million 

for fiscal years 1997 and 1998. 

HELPING SMALL SYSTEMS 

PROVIDE SAFE DRINKING WATER 

Although they serve a small percentage of the 

nation’s population, water systems serving 

fewer than 10,000 persons constitute the 

majority of all drinking water systems. Small 

systems often do not have a full-time operator, 

and their limited customer base often makes 

compliance with public health standards 

difficult due to affordability problems. The 

1996 Amendments created several new tools to 

help address the special needs of small 

systems. 

• List of Small System Compliance 

Technologies: In August 1998, EPA 

published a list of alternative 

technologies that small systems may use 

to remove or treat regulated 

contaminants. These alternative 

technologies give small systems more 

flexibility in choosing the most costeffective methods to meet drinking water 

standards. 

• Variances and Exemptions: In August 

1998, EPA revised its variance and 

exemption rule, which provides a 

framework to help small systems comply 

with drinking water standards. 

Variances allow a small system that 

cannot afford to comply with a drinking 

water standard to deviate from the 

standard under certain conditions, as 

long as the drinking water is still 

protective of public health. Exemptions 

allow a water system extra time to obtain 

needed financial assistance, develop an 

alternative source of water, engage in 

management or restructuring changes, 

or make any other effort needed to bring 

the system into compliance. 

• Technical Assistance: EPA is now 

supporting a total of nine technology 

assistance centers, based at universities, 

to help small drinking water systems 

with training, technical assistance, and 

technology demonstrations. With grant 

support from EPA, university-based 

Environmental Finance Centers are 

assisting States in developing and 

implementing innovative programs to 

help small systems build and maintain 

their capacity. In addition, up to two 

percent of a State’s DWSRF capitalization 

grant may be used to provide technical 

assistance to systems serving fewer than 

10,000 persons, and SDWA requires that 

at least 15% of the DWSRF be made 

available to small systems. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - EPA Activities Underway April 1999 — Page 38 
TABLE 4: EPA PRODUCTS TO SUPPORT SDWA IMPLEMENTATION

Programs 1st year August (1996-97) 2nd year (August 1997-98) 3rd year and Future 

Public 

Information 

and 

Involvement 

• Expansion of National 

Drinking Water Advisory 

Council (NDWAC) 

• Consumer Confidence 

Report Regulation 

• Compliance Reports 

• National Contaminant Occurrence Database 

• Revised Public Notification 

• Right-to-Know NDWAC Working Group 

• Health Care Provider Outreach and 

Education NDWAC Working Group 

• Local Drinking Water Information Internet 

page 

Tools for 

States and 

Water 

Systems 

• Drinking Water State 

Revolving Fund Guidelines 

• Source Water Assessment 

and Protection Guidance 

• Drinking Water 

Infrastructure Needs 

Survey 

• Alternative Monitoring 

Guidance 

• Information on Operator 

Certification 

• Capacity Development 

Guidance 

• Environmental Finance 

Centers 

• Proposed Class V UIC Rule 

• Operator Certification Guidelines 

• Federal Support of State Source Water 

Assessment Activities through the Clean 

Water Action Plan 

• Final Class V UIC Rule 

• State Ground Water Protection Reports 

• Local Government Environmental Assistance 

Network 

• Drinking Water Academy–training for states 

• Public meetings on data quality and 

establishment of Data Reliability Workgroup 

Small 

System 

Needs 

• Treatment Technologies 

List for Surface Water 

Treatment Rule 

• Compliance Technologies 

List 

• Variance and Exemptions 

Rule 

• Technology Assistance 

Centers 

• NDWAC Small Systems Working Group 

• EPA to pay unregulated contaminant 

monitoring costs for small systems 

Risk-Based 

Standards 

Setting 

• Research Plans for 

Microbial/Disinfection 

Byproducts and for 

Arsenic 

• Contaminant Candidate 

List 

• National Contaminant Occurrence Database 

• Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 

• New drinking water standards: Interim 

Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule and 

Disinfectants/Disinfection Byproducts Rules 

FOCUSING SAFETY STANDARDS 

ON THE MOST SERIOUS HEALTH 

RISKS 

Strengthening research to support 

development of regulations based on sound 

science is one of the most significant 

provisions in the 1996 Amendments. The first 

major products of that scientific focus were 

produced in 1998. These products 

demonstrate the principles of targeting and 

focusing research on high risk contaminants 

and expanding public involvement in the 

rulemaking process by enhancing public 

access to data. 

• The Contaminant Candidate List: In 

February 1998, EPA published its 

Contaminant Candidate List (CCL), which is 

the strategic blueprint for future standards 

development and public health decisions. 

The CCL is a list of currently unregulated 

contaminants that are known or anticipated 

to occur in drinking water. The list will help 

EPA, States, and water systems focus their 

efforts on contaminants that pose the 

greatest risks to public health. 

Contaminants for priority drinking water 

research, occurrence monitoring, and 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - EPA Activities Underway April 1999 — Page 39 
guidance development, including health 

advisories, will be drawn from the CCL. EPA 

will also use this list to outline a plan of 

action, required by the year 2001, for making 

regulatory decisions on developing standards 

for five or more contaminants. 

• Strengthening Research: EPA has 

expanded its research in occurrence 

studies, health effects, analytical 

methods, and treatment approaches to 

support its standard-setting priorities 

under the CCL. In addition, as required 

by the 1996 Amendments, EPA has 

developed, and is carrying out, its longterm research plans for arsenic and the 

microbial and disinfectants/ disinfection 

byproducts cluster of rules. 

• Microbial and Disinfectants/ 

Disinfection Byproducts Rules: 

Congress and the Administration agree 

that microbial contaminants in drinking 

water, such as Cryptosporidium, pose 

the greatest potential risk to human 

health. The 1996 Amendments required 

EPA to issue several rules to control 

these contaminants and the byproducts 

of chemicals used to control them. On 

December 3, 1998, EPA dramatically 

advanced public health protection by 

issuing the first set of these rules, the 

Interim Enhanced Surface Water 

Treatment Rule and the Stage I 

Disinfectants/ Disinfection Byproducts 

Rule. 

EXERCISING NEW 

ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES 

AND UNDERTAKING 

COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE 

EPA and the States are continuing to work 

toward implementing the streamlined 

enforcement provisions of the SDWA 

amendments, recognizing that credible, firm, 

and fair enforcement responses play an 

important role in both in deterring 

noncompliance and maintaining a level 

playing field for the regulated community. 

EPA’s current enforcement priorities focus on 

those regulations and contaminants which 

pose the greatest risk to public health, i.e., the 

microbiological regulations (Total Coliform Rule 

and Surface Water Treatment Rule), lead and 

copper, and other acute contaminants (e.g., 

nitrate). 

In fiscal year 1997, the States issued a total of 

913 formal enforcement actions, including 632 

administrative orders without penalty, 220 

administrative orders with penalty, 60 civil 

referrals, and 1 criminal referral. In the same 

year, EPA issued 266 notices of violation, 392 

Federal administrative orders, 12 complaints 

for penalty, and 4 referrals for civil judicial 

action. 

To complement its enforcement activities, EPA 

also undertakes compliance assistance to help 

increase public water systems’ understanding 

of, and compliance with, drinking water 

requirements. The Agency conducted more 

than 3,180 compliance assistance activities, 

including on-site visits to public water systems 

and development and distribution of 

compliance assistance tools. In September of 

1998, the Agency opened a Compliance 

Assistance Center, the Local Government 

Environmental Assistance Network (LGEAN), 

designed to help local government officials stay 

abreast of the latest environmental 

requirements and technologies, including 

drinking water issues. LGEAN is coordinated 

by a number of partners, such as drinking 

water and governmental associations. The 

network will help governments disseminate 

information on drinking water to help systems 

treat water more effectively and will field 

questions on environmental compliance and 

assistance information for State and local 

officials, inspectors, and regulators. 

IMPROVING THE DATA THAT 

DESCRIBE AMERICA’S 

DRINKING WATER 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - EPA Activities Underway April 1999 — Page 40 
The nation needs reliable data in order to 

manage its drinking water program. It is of 

great importance to EPA and its partners to 

improve the quality and accuracy of drinking 

water data. EPA has collected data from States 

for approximately 20 years on violations of 

drinking water standards and stored them in 

an EPA data system that has recently been 

modernized and renamed the Safe Drinking 

Water Information System (SDWIS/FED). 

Portions of SDWIS/FED still under 

development will better track compliance with 

existing and future regulations, track drinking 

water goals developed to meet the 

Government Performance and Results Act, 

and also make data recovery easier for the 

public. 

In preparing the 1996 national report, EPA 

identified numerous discrepancies between 

the data some States reported in their annual 

State reports and the data they reported to 

SDWIS/FED. To ensure SDWIS/FED data 

reliability, EPA has initiated a major effort to 

improve data quality. The effort includes 

establishing a data quality goal, improving the 

way drinking water data are presented in 

EPA’s Envirofacts web site, characterizing and 

quantifying the data quality problem, and 

taking interim steps to improve data quality. 

The major steps EPA and its partners will take 

in this effort are: 

• Improve the display of drinking water 

data in Envirofacts 

• Characterize and quantify the data 

quality problem 

• Take interim steps to improve data 

quality 

• Make long-term commitment to 

achieve and maintain data quality 

goals 

These steps are outlined in the activities 

described on pages 21 and 22 of this report. 

In addition to having information about actual 

violations of drinking water standards for 

treated drinking water, the nation also needs 

information on the occurrence of 

contaminants in our sources of drinking water. 

The SDWA Amendments of 1996 mandated 

that EPA prepare a National Contaminant 

Occurrence Database (NCOD) by 1999 that will 

contain information about the pollutants found 

in sources of drinking water. NCOD will draw 

on other databases from both inside EPA and 

from partners such as the U.S. Geological 

Survey, and will also include information from 

forthcoming State and Tribal source water 

assessments. The database will give both 

managers and the public information on the 

quality of water which is subsequently treated 

to become our drinking water. 

The planned improvements to data in 

SDWIS/FED as well as the new data available 

in 1999 through the NCOD will give the public 

and the drinking water community a better 

picture of the quality of our drinking water. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - EPA Activities Underway April 1999 — Page 41 
Appendix A

Glossary of Terms
Acute Contaminants 

Short-term exposure to acute contaminants, 

such as bacteria, protozoa, viruses, and 

nitrate, may result in immediate illness and, in 

some cases, death. 

Administrative Order 

Administrative orders are written documents, 

considered to be formal enforcement actions, 

which are issued by EPA or the States to 

address the noncompliance of a public water 

system, usually by means of a schedule with 

enforceable milestone dates. 

Bilateral Compliance Agreements 

Bilateral compliance agreements are written 

documents, considered to be formal 

enforcement actions signed by the water 

system and EPA or the State. They contain a 

compliance schedule with enforceable 

milestone dates. 

Chronic Contaminants 

Exposure to chronic contaminants, such as 

organic chemicals (volatile and synthetic), 

inorganic chemicals (e.g., metals, lead and 

copper) and radionuclides, may result in 

severe health effects that can recur frequently 

or develop slowly as a result of long-term 

exposure. 

Coliform Bacteria 

Microorganisms found in nature, in any 

decaying substance and also in the intestinal 

tract of humans and animals. Their presence 

in water can indicate a lapse in treatment and 

potential contamination by pathogens. 

Community Water System 

A community water system (CWS) is a public 

water system that serves at least 15 service 

connections used by year-round residents or 

regularly serves at least 25 year-round 

residents (e.g., homes, apartments and 

condominiums that are occupied year-round 

as primary residences). 

Cryptosporidium 

Cryptosporidium is a protozoa that causes the 

gastrointestinal disease cryptosporidiosis. The 

most serious, and sometimes deadly, 

consequences of cryptosporidiosis tend to be 

focused among members of the population 

with compromised immune systems. 

Disinfection 

Disinfection is a type of drinking water 

treatment, where microbiological 

contamination is inactivated by using chlorine, 

chloramines, and chlorine dioxide or ozone. 

Inorganic Chemicals 

These are non-carbon based, mostly naturallyoccurring compounds, such as metals, 

nitrates, and asbestos. EPA has established 

MCLs for 15 inorganic contaminants. 

Lead and Copper Rule 

Compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule 

indicates that a public water system has taken 

steps to minimize the risk of exposure to lead 

and copper from drinking water by monitoring 

for these contaminants and installing 

corrosion control where required. 

Maximum Contaminant Level 

A maximum contaminant level (MCL) is the 

maximum permissible level of a contaminant 

in water delivered to any user of a public water 

system. 

Monitoring and Reporting 

EPA established monitoring and reporting 

schedules, or contaminant-specific minimum 

testing schedules and operational reporting 

requirements, for public water systems. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix A April 1999 — Page A-1 
Nitrate and Nitrite 

Nitrate and nitrite are inorganic compounds 

that can enter water supplies from fertilizer 

runoff and sanitary wastewater discharges. 

Nitrates in drinking water are associated with 

methemoglobinemia, or blue baby syndrome, 

where nitrate reduces the blood’s ability to 

carry oxygen. 

Non-transient Non-community Water 

System 

A non-transient non-community water system 

(NTNCWS) is a public water system that serves 

at least 25 of the same persons for over six 

months per year. A typical example of a nontransient non-community water system is a 

school or an office building that has its own 

water source, such as a drinking water well. 

Notice of Violation 

A notice of violation (NOV) is a written 

document, usually considered to be a formal 

enforcement action, issued by EPA or the 

States regarding a public water system’s 

violations of applicable drinking water 

standards or schedule requirements. The 

notice of violation specifically describes the 

violations and seeks a return to compliance. 

Pathogens 

These are microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, 

viruses, or parasites) that can cause disease in 

humans and animals. 

Public Water System 

A public water system (PWS) is a system that 

provides piped water for human consumption 

and serves at least 25 persons or has at least 

15 service connections. A public water system 

can be either a community water system, a 

non-transient non-community water system, 

or a transient non-community water system. 

Radionuclides 

Radioactive particles, such as radium-226, 

radium-228, gross alpha, and beta 

particle/photon radioactivity, can occur 

naturally in water or may result from human 

activity. EPA has established MCLs for 

beta/photon emitters, alpha emitters, and 

combined radium 226/228. 

Regional Offices 

Regional Offices are responsible for 

Environmental Protection Agency Regional 

programs within their respective jurisdictions. 

Regional Offices cooperate with Federal, State, 

interstate, and local agencies, as well as with 

industry, academic institutions, and other 

private groups to ensure that Regional needs 

are addressed and that Federal environmental 

laws are upheld. 

Significant Monitoring Violations 

Section 1414 of the 1996 SDWA Amendments 

requires States and EPA to report on 

“significant” monitoring and reporting 

violations, as determined by the Administrator. 

For purposes of this report, “significant” 

monitoring violations are classes of monitoring 

violations reported to the Safe Drinking Water 

Information System (SDWIS/FED) that can be 

segregated from other monitoring violations 

reported to SDWIS/FED and must be listed in 

a State’s annual report. These violations occur 

when, during a relevant compliance period, a 

public water system collects none of the 

samples or submits none of the reports 

required by a particular regulatory provision. 

Significant Monitoring Violations vary with 

different contaminant rules (e.g., Total 

Coliform Rule, Surface Water Treatment Rule, 

Lead and Copper Rule, Total Trihalomethanes, 

and Radionuclides). 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix A April 1999 — Page A-2 
Surface Water Treatment Rule 

Compliance with the Surface Water Treatment 

Rule (SWTR) indicates that a public water 

system has taken steps to reduce exposure to 

microbiological contamination through 

filtration and disinfection or disinfection and 

watershed control. 

Total Coliform Rule 

The Total Coliform Rule establishes limits on 

coliform bacteria in water distribution 

systems. Although coliform bacteria usually 

are not pathogenic, they may indicate the 

presence of pathogens. 

Transient Non-community Water 

System 

A transient non-community water system 

means a non-community water system that 

does not regularly serve at least 25 of the same 

persons over six months per year. 

Treatment Technique 

These are treatment methods required by EPA 

to minimize the level of a contaminant in 

drinking water. In cases where EPA has 

determined it is not technically or 

economically feasible to establish an MCL, EPA 

can instead specify a treatment technique. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix A April 1999 — Page A-3 
TABLE A-1: SIGNIFICANT MONITORING VIOLATIONS FOR ANNUAL

STATE PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM REPORTS

Rule Violation Type Description 

SDWIS 

Violation 

Code 1 

SDWIS 

Contaminant 

Code 

Total Coliform 

Rule 

Major routine 

No samples collected 

during a compliance 

period 

23 3100 

Major repeat 

No follow-up samples 

collected after a positive 

total coliform sample or 

no speciation 

25 3100 

Surface Water 

Treatment Rule 

Major (filtered) 

Collected less than 90% of 

samples required during a 

compliance period 

31 None 

Major (unfiltered) 

Collected less than 90% of 

samples required during a 

compliance period 

36 None 

Lead and Copper 

Rule 

Initial lead and 

copper tap 

Failure to collect the initial 

tap samples followed by a 

failure to correct that 

omission within 3 months 

for large systems, 6 

months for medium 

systems, and 12 months 

for small systems, or 

failure to submit the 

associated report 

51 

Follow-up or 

routine lead and 

copper tap 

Failure to collect 1 or 

more required samples 52 

Phase I, II, IIB, 

and V Rules 

Regular 

monitoring 

Failed to collect any 

required samples 2 

By 

contaminant 

Total 

Trihalomethanes 

Regular 

monitoring 

Failed to collect any 

required samples 03 2950 

Radionuclides Regular 

monitoring 

Failed to collect any 

required samples 03 4000, 4101, 4010 

1 The Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS/FED) makes no distinction between the sampling violations and the 

reporting violations associated with a sample collection requirement. Both violations are reported under the same SDWIS/FED 

violation code. 

2 As described in the consolidated summary, failure to collect “any samples” means none of the required samples were collected. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix A April 1999 — Page A-4 
Appendix B

Summaries of State Annual

Compliance Reports
CONTENTS

Alabama ......................... . B-5

Alaska ........................... . B-6

American Samoa ................... . B-7

Arizona .......................... . B-8

Arkansas ......................... . B-9

California ....................... . B-10

Colorado ........................ . B-11

Connecticut ..................... . B-12

Delaware ........................ . B-13

District of Columbia ............... . B-14

Florida ......................... . B-15

Georgia ......................... . B-16

Guam .......................... . B-17

Hawaii .......................... . B-18

Idaho ........................... . B-19

Illinois .......................... . B-20

Indiana ......................... . B-21

Iowa ........................... . B-22

Kansas ......................... . B-23

Kentucky ....................... . B-24

Louisiana ....................... . B-25

Maine .......................... . B-26

Maryland ........................ . B-27

Massachusetts ................... . B-28

Michigan ........................ . B-29

Minnesota ....................... . B-30

Mississippi ...................... . B-31

Missouri ........................ . B-32

Montana ........................ . B-33

Nebraska ........................ . B-34

Nevada ......................... . B-35

New Hampshire .................. . B-36

New Jersey ...................... . B-37

New Mexico ...................... . B-38

New York ........................ . B-39

North Carolina ................... . B-40

North Dakota .................... . B-41

Northern Mariana Islands ........... . B-42

Ohio ........................... . B-43

Oklahoma ....................... . B-44

Oregon ......................... . B-45

Pennsylvania .................... . B-46

Puerto Rico ...................... . B-47

Rhode Island ..................... . B-48

South Carolina ................... . B-49

South Dakota .................... . B-50

Tennessee ....................... . B-51

Texas .......................... . B-52

Utah ........................... . B-53

Vermont ........................ . B-54

Virgin Islands .................... . B-55

Virginia ......................... . B-56

Washington ...................... . B-57

West Virginia .................... . B-58

Wisconsin ....................... . B-59

Wyoming ........................ . B-60

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-1
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA) developed summaries from the State 

reports. Those summaries, which are included 

as this appendix, use a standardized format 

that includes an overall summary of the 

violations data specified in Section 1414 of the 

1997 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) 

Amendments (i.e., violations with respect to 

maximum contaminant levels (MCLs), 

treatment technique violations, significant 

monitoring and reporting requirements, and 

variance and exemptions). 

EPA has not interpreted the data in this 

section and does not pass judgement on 

whether the States have fully reported all 

violations. EPA’s evaluation of the State 

reports and compliance and data issues is 

discussed as part of the findings and 

recommendations in Section 2. 

Violations for 1997 

MCL, treatment technique, and significant 

monitoring violations data were summarized 

into four categories: 

C Violations of specific contaminant 

requirements 

C Violations for the Total Coliform Rule 

C Violations of the Surface Water 

Treatment Rule 

C Violations for the Lead and Copper Rule. 

Where data for violations or systems in 

violation are not available from the State 

reports, data from the Federal version of the 

1 For this report, “significant” monitoring and reporting violations occur when a public water system (PWS) collects none of the 

Safe Drinking Water Information System 

(SDWIS/FED) have been included. 

The numbers of violations and the number of 

individual PWSs in violation for the State were 

summarized for these four categories for MCL, 

treatment technique, and significant 

monitoring requirements violations. 

1997 Totals 

The total number of systems, the total number 

of violations reported, and the total number of 

PWSs in violation in 1997 are also given. 

Systems in Violation 

Systems in Violation is defined as the number 

of different systems with a reported violation of 

this type. If there is a possibility that the State 

has counted systems with various violations 

more than once, the number in the box is 

marked by the following symbol, ^. If the 

state report did not include the number of 

systems in violation, the box is marked NR. 

Variances and Exemptions 

There were no reported violations of variances 

and exemptions in 1997. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual 

Public Water Systems Report 

Available information is provided on obtaining 

a copy of the State or Territorial report. 

samples or submits none of the reports required by a particular regulatory provision, or collects less than 10% of the samples 

or submits less than 10% of the reports required by the Surface Water Treatment Rule. A comprehensive definition of 

significant monitoring and reporting violations including exceptions to the definition for the Total Coliform Rule and Lead and 

Copper Rule is included in the report glossary in Appendix A. 

2 MCL and significant monitoring violations for organic, inorganic, total trihalomethane (TTHM), nitrate and nitrite, and 

radionuclide contaminants. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-2 
TABLE B-1: SUMMARY OF ELEMENTS REPORTED BY STATES

State Submitted 

Report 

Reported On 

Violations 

Categories Reported 

on V/E* 

Report 

Identified 

Each 

System 

with MCL 

and TT 

Violations 

Provided 

Information 

to Public on 

Availability 

Report 

Provided 

Additional 

Information 

Identified 

Size and 

Type of 

Violating 

Systems 

Discussed 

Compliance 

and 

Enforcement 

Responses 

Provided 

Inventory 

Information 

MCL M/R TT 

Alabama X X X X X X X X X 

Alaska X X X X X X X 

American 

Samoa 

Arizona X X X X 

Arkansas X X X X X X X X X X X 

California X X X X X X X X X 

Colorado X X X X X X X X 

Connecticut X X X X X X X X X 

District of 

Columbia 

X X X X X X X X X X X 

Delaware X X X X X X X X X X 

Florida X X X X X 

Georgia X X X X X X X 

Guam 

Hawaii X X X X X X X X 

Idaho X X X X X X X X X 

Illinois X X X X X X X 

Indiana X X X X X X X X X X 

Iowa X X X X X X X X X X 

Kansas X X X X X X X X 

Kentucky X X X X X X X X 

Louisiana X X X X X X 

Maine X X X X X X X X X 

Maryland X X X X X X X X X 

Massachusetts X X X X X X X 

Michigan X X X X X X X X X X 

Minnesota X X X X X X X X X X 

Mississippi X X X X X 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-3
State Submitted 

Report 

Reported On 

Violations 

Categories Reported 

on V/E* 

Report 

Identified 

Each 

System 

with MCL 

and TT 

Violations 

Provided 

Information 

to Public on 

Availability 

Report 

Provided 

Additional 

Information 

Identified 

Size and 

Type of 

Violating 

Systems 

Discussed 

Compliance 

and 

Enforcement 

Responses 

Provided 

Inventory 

Information 

MCL M/R TT 

Missouri X X X X X X X X X 

Montana X X X X X X X X 

Nebraska X X X X X X X X X 

Nevada X X X X X X X X 

New Hampshire X X X X X X X X 

New Jersey X X X X X X X X X 

New Mexico X X X X X X X X 

New York X X X X X X X X X 

North Carolina X X X X X X X X 

North Dakota X X X X X X X X X X 

Northern 

Mariana 

Islands 

Ohio X X X X X X X X X X X 

Oklahoma X X X X X X X X X 

Oregon X X X X X X 

Pennsylvania X X X X X X X X X X 

Puerto Rico X X X X X X X X 

Rhode Island X X X X 

South Carolina X X X X X X X X X X X 

South Dakota X X X X X X X X X 

Tennessee X X X X X X X X 

Texas X X X X X X X X 

Utah X X X X 

Vermont X X X X X X X X X 

Virgin Islands X X X X X X X 

Virginia X X X X X X X X X X 

Washington X X X X X X X X X 

West Virginia X X X X X X X X 

Wisconsin X X X X X X X X X X X 

Wyoming X X X X X X X 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-4 
1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-5 
State of Alabama 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

2 2 190 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 36 34 70 49 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

4 1 NR NR 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 23 21 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

770 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

325 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Alabama’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s Web site at 

www.adem.state.al.us/viorep97.html and by written request to ADEM, Water Supply Branch, P.O. Box 

301463, Montgomery, Alabama 36130-1463 or at e-mail address tsd@adem.state.al.us. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-6 
State of Alaska 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

6 4 2168 307 

Total Coliform Rule 50 45 1323 626 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

346 97 662 140 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 310 274 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1695 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

890 

Total Number of 

Violations 

4865 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Alaska’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s Web site at 

www.state.ak.us/local/akpages/ENV.CONSERV/deh/water/dwvio97.htm or by contacting James Weise, 

Drinking Water/Waste Water Program Manager, Department of Environmental Conservation, 555 

Cordova Street, Anchorage, AK 99501, phone (907) 269-7647. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-7 
American Samoa 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 0 0 0 0 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

14 14 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

21 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

14 

Total Number of 

Violations 

14 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

EPA generated these data from SDWIS/FED. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-8 
State of Arizona 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

197 75 21,807 1185 

Total Coliform Rule 205 149 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

23 7 208 20 

Lead and Copper Rule N/A N/A N/A N/A 

N/A = as reported by state 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

NR 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

425* 

* This number does not include Lead and Copper Rule violations since the State did not provide 

information in this category. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Arizona’s State Report is available by contacting the Drinking Water Section, Arizona Department of 

Environmental Quality, 3033 N. Central, Room 200, Phoenix, AZ 85012-2809, phone (602) 270-4644. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-9 
State of Arkansas 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

17 12 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 70 66 324 209 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

87 29 70 36 

Lead and Copper Rule 1 1 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1264 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

569 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Arkansas’State Report is available by accessing the State’s Web site at 

www.health.state.ar.us/eng/doe.htm or by contacting Usman Patel at Arkansas Department of Health, 

Division of Engineering, 4815 West Markham, Little Rock, AR 72205-2032, phone (501) 661-2623, fax 

(501) 661-2032, or upatel@mail.doh.state.ar.us (electronic mail). 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-10 
State of California 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

7 7^ 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 170 155 109 89 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

64 63 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

8688* 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

246 

Total Number of 

Violations 

350 

* 5000 PWSs are regulated by the counties in which they are located. The other 3688 are regulated by 

the state. Only data on the 3688 are included in the report. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

California’s State Report is available by contacting the State at California Department of Health Services, 

Division of Drinking Water and Environmental Management, phone (916) 323-6111. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-11 
State of Colorado 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

19 14 76 74 

Total Coliform Rule 65 45 455 331 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

52 23 24 13 

Lead and Copper Rule 5 4 26 26 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

2217 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

463 

Total Number of 

Violations 

722 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Colorado’s State Report is available by contacting the State at Compliance Monitoring-Data 

Management, WQCO-CMDM-B2, 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South, Denver, CO 80246-1530. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-12 
State of Connecticut 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

17 10 2336 137 

Total Coliform Rule 81 54 405 278 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

10 10 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 2 2 62 62 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

4619 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

418 

Total Number of 

Violations 

2913 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Connecticut’s State Report is available for review at the public library or at the Water Supplies Section, 

Department of Public Health, 450 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06134. To schedule an appointment to 

review this document at the Water Supplies Section call (860) 509-7333. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-13 
State of Delaware 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

NA* NA NA NA 

Total Coliform Rule 43 39 NA NA 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

NA** NA** NA NA 

Lead and Copper Rule NA NA 55 34 

* State has set NA as the subtotal for these categories. However, based on review, there are numbers in 

the table that add to 48 violations. 

** State has set NA as the subtotal for these categories. However, based on review, there are numbers 

in the table that add to 1 violation at 1 system. 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

563 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

151 

Total Number of 

Violations 

147 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Information on Delaware’s public water systems may be found on the Internet in EPA’s Envirofacts web 

page at the following address: www.epa.gov/enviro/html/sdwis/sdwis_ov.html. Delaware’s State Report 

is available by contacting Ed Hallock or Chad Hall at the Division of Public Health, P.O. Box 639, Dover, 

DE 19903. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-14 
District of Columbia 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 0 0 0 0 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

0 0 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

2 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

0 

Total Number of 

Violations 

0 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

The District of Columbia’s State Report is available by contacting: George Rizzo, DC PWSS Program 

Manager, Drinking Water Branch (3WP22), U.S. EPA Region III, 1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 

19103-2029, Telephone (215) 814-5781, Fax: (215) 814-2318, E-mail: rizzo.george@epamail.epa.gov. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-15 
State of Florida 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

16 16^ 248 8 

Total Coliform Rule 359 311^ 1282 940 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

0 0 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 1 1 4 4 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

7000* 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

1275^ 

Total Number of 

Violations 

1920 

* This number is an approximation provided by the state. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Florida’s State Report Summary, State rules, forms, and drinking water inventory are available by 

accessing the State’s Web site (www.dep.state.fl.us/water/Wf/dw/dw.htm). 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-16 
State of Georgia 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

2 2 313 247 

Total Coliform Rule 180 130 618 455 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

0 0 1 1 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 49 49 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

NR 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

1163 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Georgia’s State Report is available by contacting Doug Davenport, Department of Natural Resources, 

Environmental Protection Division, Drinking Water Program, Information Management Unit, 205 Butler 

St., SE Suite 1362, Atlanta, GA 30334, Phone (404) 651-5162. Website: 

www.dnr.state.ga.us/dnr/environ/ 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-17 
Guam 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 0 0 0 0 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

0 0 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

12 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

0 

Total Number of 

Violations 

0 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

EPA generated these data from SDWIS/FED. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-18 
State of Hawaii 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 5 4 1 1 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

114 10 3 2 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

144 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

15 

Total Number of 

Violations 

123 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Hawaii’s State Report is available by contacting William Wong at the Safe Drinking Water Branch, 

Department of Health, 919 Ala Moana Blvd., Room 300, Honolulu, HI 96814-4920, phone (808) 586-

4258, fax (808) 586-4370, email (waterbill@aol.com). 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-19 
State of Idaho 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 420 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 403 336 1090 676 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

291 37 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule NA NA NA NA 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

2088 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

2204 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Idaho’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s web site 

(www.state.id.us/deq/water/acrsum.pdf) and by contacting the Idaho Division of Environmental 

Quality’s six Regional Offices or the State’s seven district health departments. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-20 
State of Illinois 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

272 152 2746 65 

Total Coliform Rule 135 114 491 315 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

5 5 10 6 

Lead and Copper Rule 9 9 19 17 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

6061 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

576 

Total Number of 

Violations 

3673 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Illinois’State Report is available by contacting the Illinois EPA’s Division of Public Water Supplies, #13, 

P.O. Box 9276, Springfield, IL 62794-9276. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-21 
State of Indiana 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

50 21 2526 701 

Total Coliform Rule 250 221 2821 1579 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

10 6 3 1 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 62 57 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

4287 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

1783 

Total Number of 

Violations 

5722 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Indiana’s State Report is available via the Indiana Department of Environmental Management web-site at 

www.ai.org/idem/owm/ or by contacting the Drinking Water Branch at (317) 308-3280. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-22 
State of Iowa 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

67 36^ 31 22^ 

Total Coliform Rule 128 109 80 28 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

10 3 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 8 8 27 23 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1920 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

218^ 

Total Number of 

Violations 

351 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Iowa’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s web site at 

www.state.ia.us/government/dnr/organiza/epd/wtrsuply/pwscmp97.htm or by contacting the Iowa 

Department of Natural Resources, Water Supply Section, Wallace State Office Building, 900 East Grand 

Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50319-0034. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-23 
State of Kansas 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

98 46 4 4 

Total Coliform Rule 68 55 124 61 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

21 14 12 8 

Lead and Copper Rule 4 4 15 15 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1122 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

228 

Total Number of 

Violations 

346 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Kansas’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s web site at 

www.state.ks.us/public/kdhe/bow.html or by contacting the State at Public Water Supply Section, 

Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Bldg. 283 Forbes Field, Topeka, KS 66620, Attn: Peter 

Armesto, phone (785) 296-6297. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-24 
State of Kentucky 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

29 11 90* 54** 

Total Coliform Rule 29 23^ 136 49 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

38 20 52 21 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

* State lists a subtotal of 90. Actual numbers add to 38. 

** State lists a subtotal of 54. Actual numbers add to 33. 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

728 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

203*** 

Total Number of 

Violations 

157  

** * Number explicitly reported in narrative, although constituent numbers above do not yield this figure. 

**** Sum of subtotals provided by the state. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Kentucky’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s Web site at 

water.nr.state.ky.us/dow/compsum.htm and contacting the Kentucky Division of Water, Drinking Water 

Branch, 14 Reilly Road, Ash Building, Frankfort, Kentucky, 40601, phone (502) 564-3410. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-25 
State of Louisiana 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

NR NR NR NR 

Total Coliform Rule 288 227 22 5 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

NR(3) NR(3) NR NR 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

The numbers in parentheses were not reported by the state. These numbers were derived through 

analysis of raw data submitted by the state. 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

2000 * 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

244 

Total Number of 

Violations 

320* 

* This number is an estimate provided by the state. 

** This number, reported by the state, does not equal the number of violations found by counting them 

individually. That number is 252. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

A specific source for obtaining a copy of this report has not been provided. General information on its 

availability may be obtained from: Division of Environmental and Health Services, Louisiana Department 

of Health and Hospital, Office of Public Health, P.O. Box 60630, New Orleans, LA 70160, phone (504) 

568-5100. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-26 
State of Maine PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

5 NR 50 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 217 NR 1010 NR 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

15 NR 26 NR 3 NR 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 NR 0 0 26 NR 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

2293 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

1355 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Maine’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s web site at 

www.state.me.us/dhs/eng/water/water.htm or by contacting the State at Drinking Water Program, 10 

State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333, phone (207) 287-2070. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-27 
State of Maryland 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

14 14 8 8 

Total Coliform Rule 196 167 109 62 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

60 12 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 3 3 5 5 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

3583 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

409 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Maryland’s State Report and additional information on the Maryland program are available by contacting 

Nancy Reilman, MDE - Water Supply Program at (410) 631-3729. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-28 
State of Massachusetts 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

5 5 5396 272 

Total Coliform Rule 116 89 483 231 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

56 56 1 1 

Lead and Copper Rule 19 18 51 39 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1584 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

552 

Total Number of 

Violations 

6127 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

A specific source for obtaining a copy of this report has not been provided. Additional information about 

the Massachusetts Drinking Water Program is available by accessing the state’s web site 

(www.magnet.state.ma.us/dep/brp/). For specific questions on this report call the Massachusetts 

Drinking Water Program at (617) 292-5770. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-29 
State of Michigan 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

24 23 1408 1182 

Total Coliform Rule 508 413 3866 2723 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

5 5 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 284 242 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

12,490* 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

3681 

Total Number of 

Violations 

6095 

* This number is an approximation provided by the state. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Michigan State Report is available by accessing the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, 

Drinking Water and Radiological Protection Division web page at www.deq.state.mi.us/us/dwr/. It can 

also be obtained by contacting the State at Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Drinking 

Water & Radiological Protection Division, Lansing, MI 48909-8130. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-30 
State of Minnesota 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

22 22 2 2 

Total Coliform Rule 242 241 110 97 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

16 14 13 12 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 8 18 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

8900 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

381 

Total Number of 

Violations 

413 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Minnesota’s State Report is available by contacting the Drinking Water Protection Section, Minnesota 

Department of Health, Box 64875, St. Paul, MN 55164-0975. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-31 
State of Mississippi 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 79 67 38 32 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

0 0 NR NR 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 NR NR 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1411 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

97* 

Total Number of 

Violations 

117 

* Total calculated from raw data. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Mississippi’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s web site at 

www.msdh.state.ms.us/OHR/watersup/wshome.htm or by contacting the Mississippi State Department 

of Health, Water Supply Division, P.O. Box 1700, Jackson, MS 39215-1700. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-32 
State of Missouri 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

9 9 434 106 

Total Coliform Rule 408 265 1226 668 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

8 4 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 33 33 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

2692 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

923 

Total Number of 

Violations 

2075 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Missouri’s State Report and additional information regarding Missouri’s PWSs are available by 

contacting the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Public Drinking Water Program, P.O. Box 176, 

Jefferson City, MO 65102, phone (573) 751-5331. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-33 
State of Montana 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

30* NR 633 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 125 125 1608 740 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

218 38 524 32 

Lead and Copper Rule 114 114 405 178 

* The state reported 30 violations; data provided by state actually add to 31. 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1950 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

3658 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Montana’s State Report is available on the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s web site at 

www.deq.mt.gov or by contacting the State at Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Box 

200901, Helena, MT 59620-0901. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-34 
State of Nebraska 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

27 24^ 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 143 123^ 113 98 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

NR NR NR NR 

Lead and Copper Rule NR NR NR NR 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1340 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

283 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Nebraska’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s website 

(www.hhs.state.ne.us/pws/pws7index.htm) or by contacting the Nebraska Department of Health and 

Human Services, Regulation and Licensure, 301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE 68509, (402) 471-

2541. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-35 
State of Nevada 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

9 9 47 47 

Total Coliform Rule 76 NR 124 113 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

5 NR 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 193 170 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

NR 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

457 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Nevada’s State Report is available by contacting the Nevada State Health Division at 1179 Fairview 

Drive, Suite 101, Carson City, Nevada 89701, or the full summary report may be viewed at county 

libraries throughout the State. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-36 
State of New Hampshire 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

6 6 1770 152 

Total Coliform Rule 184 153 237 164 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

20 12 11 4 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 7 7 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

2144 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

435 

Total Number of 

Violations 

2021 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

New Hampshire’s State Report is available by contacting Laurie K. Cullerot at Department of 

Environmental Services, Water Supply Engineering Bureau, 6 Hazen Drive, P.O. Box 95, Concord, NH 

03302-0095. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-37 
State of New Jersey 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

68 38 18,334 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 137 109 2195 1216 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

9 2 5 4 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 18 9 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

4712 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

20,766 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

New Jersey’s State Report and Drinking Water Standards chart are available by contacting the State at 

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Safe Drinking Water, P.O. Box 426, 

Trenton, NJ 08625-0426. The report will also be sent to the State library for distribution through its 

system, and to the county and local health officers. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-38 
State of New Mexico 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

4 NR 1 1 

Total Coliform Rule 124 96 267 175 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

10 6 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 1 6 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1376 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

288 

Total Number of 

Violations 

407 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

A specific source for obtaining a copy of this report has not been provided. General information on its 

availability may be obtained from: Keith Melton, Program Manager, Drinking Water Program, New 

Mexico Environment Department, 525 Camino De Los Marquez, Suite 4, P.O. Box 26110, Santa Fe, New 

Mexico 87502, Phone (505) 827-7536, e-mail: keith_melton@nmev.state.nm.us. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-39 
State of New York 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

19 18 1027 1017 

Total Coliform Rule 88 80 946 674 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

108 80 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 2 2 30 30 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

10,740 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

2220 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

New York’s State Report is available by contacting the State at BPWSP - NYSDOH, 1215 Western Ave., 

Albany, NY 12203. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-40 
State of North Carolina 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

19 NR 22,456* NR 

Total Coliform Rule 166 140 982 609 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

3 3 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 60 60 0 0 

* Some of the figures contributing to these totals were estimated by the state. 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

8262 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

23,686 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

North Carolina’s State Report is available by contacting the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-

426-4791. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-41 
State of North Dakota 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

9 NR 1 1 9 9 

Total Coliform Rule 37 28 133 93 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

9 6 1 1 

Lead and Copper Rule 3 3 4 4 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

586 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

198 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

North Dakota’s State Report is available by contacting the North Dakota Department of Health, Division 

of Municipal Facilities, P.O. Box 5520, 1200 Missouri Avenue, Bismarck, ND 58506-5520, Attention: Jeni 

Walsh (701) 328-5231 (phone) or (701) 328-5200 (fax). A summary of the Report is available at the 

following website: www.health.state.nd.us/ndhd/environ/mf/pubs/97acrsum.pdf. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-42 
Northern Mariana Islands 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 0 0 0 0 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

0 0 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

43 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

0 

Total Number of 

Violations 

0 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

EPA generated these data from SDWIS/FED. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-43 
State of Ohio 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

18 13 7538 1690 

Total Coliform Rule 1541 756 2141 1371 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

263 50 21 10 

Lead and Copper Rule 15 15 256 248 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

6137 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

2911 

Total Number of 

Violations 

11,793 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

A summary of Ohio’s State Report is available by writing to the State of Ohio at PWS Annual Compliance 

Report, Ohio EPA - DDAGW, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, OH 43216-1049. In addition, this summary 

report has been posted on the Ohio EPA’s website at www.epa.state.oh.us/ddagw/annualreports.html. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-44 
State of Oklahoma 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

132 NR 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 184 NR 431 253 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

106 47 20 13 

Lead and Copper Rule NR 232 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1693* 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

873 

* This is the total number of systems meeting the Federal definition of a PWS. The state reports a total 

of 2355 regulated systems, 662 of which do not meet the Federal definition of a PWS. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Oklahoma’s State Report is available by contacting the State at Oklahoma Department of Environmental 

Quality Office at 1000 NE 10th Street, Oklahoma City, OK. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-45 
State of Oregon 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

5 5 898 898 

Total Coliform Rule 209 175 2273 1104 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

248 88 361 83 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 63 63 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

2719 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

1611 

Total Number of 

Violations 

4057 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Oregon’s State Report is available by contacting Diane Weis at the Oregon Health Division, 800 NE 

Oregon Street, Portland, OR 97232. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-46 
State of Pennsylvania 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

94 74 5,805 633 

Total Coliform Rule 158 131 1,232 925 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

61 44 123 39 

Lead and Copper Rule 2 2 51 195 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

10,600 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

7,211 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Pennsylvania’s State Report, the list of public water systems having MCL violations during 1997, and 

additional information about the Pennsylvania Safe Drinking Water Program are available by contacting: 

Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Water Supply Management, P.O Box 8467, 11th 

Floor RCSOB, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8467, Phone (717) 787-5017. Website: 

www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/watermgt/WSM/WSM_DWM/ 

InfoServ/Comp_Rpt/PWS_CompRpt_97.htm 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-47 
Puerto Rico 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

6 5 1123 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 966 NR 1489 240 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

400 NR 1106 NR 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 48 43 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

486 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

5138 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Puerto Rico’s Report is available at the following addresses: 

Department of Health

Public Water Supply Supervision Program

Ramon Fernandez Marina Hospital - Third Floor

Bo. Monacillos, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico

Department of Health

Public Water Supply Supervision Program

PO Box 70184

Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico 00936

Telephone: (787) 754-6010 or (787) 754-6370

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-48 
State of Rhode Island 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

1 1 1 1 

Total Coliform Rule 22 19 17 13 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

0 0 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 1 1 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

NR 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

41 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Additional information about Rhode Island’s drinking water program is available on the State’s website 

at www.health.state.ri.us or by contacting the Rhode Island Department of Health, Office of Drinking 

Water Quality, 3 Capitol Hill, Room 209, Providence, RI 02908, phone (401) 222-6867. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-49 
State of South Carolina 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

12 7 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 105 95 222 106 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

10 10 6 3 

Lead and Copper Rule 18 18 43 36 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1569 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

234 

Total Number of 

Violations 

416 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

South Carolina’s State Report and the 1996 report are available by contacting Ms. Angela Mettlen with 

SCDHEC’s Bureau of Water at (803) 734-532 or by fax at (803) 734-4661 or by e-mail at 

mettleag@columb32.dhec.state.sc.us or by writing to 2600 Bull Street, Columbia, SC, 29201. The 

report will also be made available on the Internet through the EQC home page at 

222.state.sc.us/dhec/pws97.htm. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-50 
State of South Dakota 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

19 NR 323 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 115 NR 287 153 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

21 9 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 13 NR 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

756 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

778 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

South Dakota’s State Report is available by contacting the State at DENR, Drinking Water Program, 523 

E. Capitol St., Pierre, SD 57501-3181. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-51 
State of Tennessee 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 121 118^ 

Total Coliform Rule 64 57^ 158 109 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

159 25^ 7 2 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 7 7^ 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1145 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

318^ 

Total Number of 

Violations 

515 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Tennessee’s State Report is available by contacting the Division Water Supply Central Office at: Division 

of Water Supply - Central Office, 401 Church Street, 6th Floor, L&C Tower, Nashville, TN 37423-1549, 

phone (615) 532-0152; or any of the six field offices: Division of Water Supply, Suite 550-State Office 

Building, 540 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37402-2013, phone (423) 634-5745; Division of Water 

Supply, 1221 South Willow, Cookeville, TN 38502, phone (931) 432-4015; Division of Water Supply, 362 

Carriage House Drive, Jackson, TN 38305-2222, phone (901) 661-6200; Division of Water Supply, 2305 

Silverdale Road, Johnson City, TN 37601-2162, phone (423) 854-5400; Division of Water Supply, Suite 

220-State Plaza, 2700 Middlebrook Pike, Knoxville, TN 37219, phone (423) 594-6035; Division of Water 

Supply, 537 Brick Church Park Drive, Nashville, TN 37423-1550, phone (615) 226-6918. Copies of 

Tennessee’s State Report are also located in each county health department and in most public libraries 

in Tennessee. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-52 
State of Texas 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

157* 134 NA** NA** 

Total Coliform Rule 227 204 489 302 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

36 25 266 77 

Lead and Copper Rule 5 5 41 40 

* The state reported 157 violations, data provided by state actually add to 171. 

** Since the State conducts most chemical monitoring for the chemical rules, violations are minimal in 

this category. 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

6757 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR* 

Total Number of 

Violations 

1221 

* This number is derived by adding state totals from above. Data provided by state actually add to 1235. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

A specific source for obtaining a copy of this report has not been provided. General information on its 

availability may be obtained from: Water Utilities Division, Texas Natural Resource Conservation 

Commission, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, TX 78711-3087, phone (512) 239-6020. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-53 
State of Utah 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

15 NR 3323 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 123 80 NA NA 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

11 2 36 3 

Lead and Copper Rule NA NA 19 16 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

NR 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

3527 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Utah’s State Report is available by contacting the State at Utah Division of Drinking Water, P.O. Box 

144830, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-4830, Attention: Ken Bousfield, phone (801) 536-4207. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-54 
State of Vermont 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

4 NR 48 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 70 50 222 157 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

20 20 22 4 

Lead and Copper Rule 10 10 134 134 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1426 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

530 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Vermont’s State Report is available by contacting the State Water Supply Division, 103 S. Main St., 

Waterbury, VT 05671-0403, phone (802) 241-3400. It is also available on the Internet at the following 

address: www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/watersup/vtrpt1997.pdf. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-55 
Virgin Islands 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 0 0 

Total Coliform Rule 80 67 46 30 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

NR NR 0 0 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 0 0 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

460 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR * 

Total Number of 

Violations 

125 

* This number was not reported by the state. Raw data provided by the state indicate 94 systems in 

violation. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

The Virgin Islands Report can be obtained by contacting Austin Moorehead, Director, Division of 

Environmental Protection, Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Building 111, 

Apartment 114, Watergut Homes, Christiansted, St. Croix, USVI, 00820, phone (340) 775-0565. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-56 
State of Virginia 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

5 NR 6 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 131 98 357 214 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

82 10 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 9 32 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

4145 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

304 

Total Number of 

Violations 

590 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

A summary of Virginia’s state report is available by accessing the following site: 

http://www.vdh.state.va.us/owp/97report.htm. A complete copy of the report may be obtained by 

contacting one of the 6 field offices: Office of Water Programs, Abingdon Field Office - Field 1, 454 East 

Main Street, Abingdon, VA 24210, phone (540) 676-5650 and fax (540) 676-5659; Office of Water 

Programs, Lexington Field Office - Field 2, 131 Walker Street, Lexington, VA 24450, phone (540) 463-

7136 and fax (540) 463-3892; Office of Water Programs, Southeast Virginia Field Office - Field 3, 5700 

Thurston Avenue - Suite 203, Virginia Beach, VA 23455, phone (757) 363-3876 and fax (757) 363-3955; 

Office of Water Programs, East Central Field Office - Field 4, 300 Turner Road, Richmond, VA 23225, 

phone 1(804) 674-2880 and fax (804) 674-2815; Office of Water Programs, Danville Field Office - Field 

5, 1347 Piney Forest Road, Danville, VA 24540, phone (804) 836-8416 and fax (804) 836-8424; Office of 

Water Programs, Culpeper Field Office - Field 6, 400 South Main Street - 2nd Floor, Culpeper, VA 22701-

3318, phone (540) 829-7340 and fax (540) 829-7337. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-57 
State of Washington 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

NA* NA NA NA 

Total Coliform Rule 658 498 1570 883 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

185 53 40 9 

Lead and Copper Rule NA NA 61 61 

* NA = Not Available (as reported by the state) 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

4204* 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

1355 

Total Number of 

Violations 

2514 

* This is the number of systems meeting the Federal definition of a PWS. The state reports a total of 

16,250 systems. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Washington’s State Report is available by accessing the State’s Website at 

www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/an_rpt97.doc or by contacting the Department of Health, Division of Drinking 

Water, P.O. Box 47822, Olympia, Washington 98504-7822. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-58 
State of West Virginia 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

1 1 448 291 

Total Coliform Rule 115 84 472 201 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

25 8 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 80 73 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

1501 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

496 

Total Number of 

Violations 

>2916* 

* The state reports more than 2916 violations. Data provided by state actually add to 1141. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

West Virginia’s State Report is available by contacting the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-

426-4791. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-59 
State of Wisconsin 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

86 75 2639 907 

Total Coliform Rule 523 462 1085 996 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

0 0 0 0 

Lead and Copper Rule 6 6 143 133 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

11,895 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

1802 

Total Number of 

Violations 

4357 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Washington’s State Report is available by contacting the Bureau of Drinking Water and Groundwater, 

State of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707, telephone 

(608) 266-6669. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-60 
State of Wyoming 1997 PWS Compliance Report 

Violations for 1997 

Violations Category 

MCL Treatment Technique Significant Monitoring 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Violations Systems 

in 

Violation 

Chemical Contaminant 

Group 

0 0 195 NR 

Total Coliform Rule 70 55 189 135 

Surface Water Treatment 

Rule 

48 18 5 4 

Lead and Copper Rule 0 0 50 50 

Total Number of 

Regulated Systems 

800* 

Total Number of 

Systems in Violation 

NR 

Total Number of 

Violations 

557 

* This number is an approximation provided by the state. 

Where to Obtain 1997 Annual State Public Water Systems Report 

Wyoming’s State Report is available from: John Gillis, EPA Region 8, 999 18th Street, Suite 500, Denver, 

CO 80202-2466, phone (303) 312-6229. 

1997 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Appendix B April 1999 — Page B-61