Reporting Monitoring Results

Reporting your monitoring results to Region 8 EPA is an important part of complying with drinking water program regulations. Your system's monitoring and reporting requirement for each contaminant is based on the size and type of population served by your system, whether the water treated is surface water, ground water under the influence or ground water, the treatment processes you use, past sampling results for the contaminant, and whether your system has received a variance or waiver for monitoring.

Our office notifies your system early each year of your system's monitoring and reporting requirements. If these requirements change during the year, you will receive written notification from our office. Usually, changes made during the year pertain to an increase or decrease in the frequency of monitoring required, based on previous monitoring results. You can also find your system's sampling requirements for individual microbiological, physical, and chemical components online at Drinking Water Watch under Sample Schedules, Reminders, and ChemRad Sample Forms.

You may be required to take samples at the sites at which you intake water, during treatment, and at designated points in the distribution system. If you purchase your water, you are still required to sample and report for biological and chemical components in the distribution system.

Many of these samples must be analyzed at laboratories certified to analyze for the particular biological or chemical components for which you are sampling (e.g. nitrates, volatile organic compounds). You may make arrangements for the laboratory to send copies of the results directly to our office. However, your system is legally responsible for ensuring that our office receives these results and by the mandated deadlines. You should maintain copies of all laboratory results at your system.

If your system disinfects with chlorine, we recommend that you record those chlorine sample results taken in the distribution system on the paperwork you send with your total coliform samples. The laboratory can report these results for you. If your system treats surface water, you will also be required to test for chlorine at the entry point to the distribution system. These results are reported on a form provided by our office.

Reporting forms and instruction sheets are provided for your use on the Reporting Forms page in this website. We provide these forms in PDF format and also in Excel and Word format so you can use embedded formulae (Excel) or fill in the blanks (Word).

How to Submit Sample Results to R8DWU contains useful information about the proper procedures to follow when sending sample results via e-mail to R8DWU@epa.gov.

Reporting to Your Consumers

You are required to notify the persons who consume the water you provide regarding water quality. If your system violates one or more maximum contaminant levels or treatment technique requirements, you are required to issue a public notification to your consumers. Our Public Notification page provides more detail about requirements and points you to useful guidance.

If your public water supply system is a community system, you are required to prepare and distribute a Consumer Confidence Report to your system's customers each year. You must also provide our office with a copy of the report and certify that it has been prepared and distributed appropriately. You will find more information on our Consumer Confidence Report page.

Records

You are required to keep certain records regarding sampling and monitoring, violations, sanitary surveys, public notices and reports, and operation of your system. Record Keeping Rules: A Quick Reference Guide provides instructions on what to keep and for how long.

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