Reporting, Forms and Instructions: Consumer Confidence Reports
Consumer Confidence Reports
A Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), also known as a safe drinking water or water quality report, is an annual report that summarizes the quality of drinking water for a community public water system.
CCR requirements apply only to community public water supply systems and to wholesalers that provide water to community public water supply systems. A community water system is a system that serves the same people year round.
On this page
Requirements
Each year, every Wyoming and Region 8 Tribal community public water system (PWS) must prepare and distribute a CCR to its customers and send a copy of the CCR to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8. The system must also provide a signed certification regarding the contents of the report and its distribution.
The CCR is a great opportunity for a PWS to describe for its water consumers what is required to produce their drinking water, water sample results, how the PWS handled any problems that might have occurred, and future improvements or requirements associated with operating the system. The reports are designed to assist consumers in making informed choices that affect their health and the health of their families.
Due dates:
April 1st - Final date for wholesalers to provide sample results to community public water supply systems that purchase their water.
July 1st - Final date for all community public water supply systems to distribute a CCR to their consumers, as noted below and to submit a copy of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8.
October 1st - Final date to submit a certification of report content and distribution to US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8.
Distribution:
The goal of CCR distribution is to provide the information in the CCR to the individuals who drink the water, both a PWS's customers and any other consumers. Requirements for distribution vary by the size of the system, but all systems are encouraged to make good faith efforts to inform the public of the availability of the CCR. These efforts include posting the CCR on a website and at public places such as the library or post office.
Systems serving 10,000 or more persons: Mail or direct delivery to all customers.
Systems serving less than 10,000: Mail or direct delivery OR publish in a local newspaper in its entirety along with a statement that the report will not be mailed.
Systems serving less than 500: Any of the above methods OR notification to consumers that the CCR is available from the public water system, upon request.
Contents of the CCR:
There are specific regulatory requirements for what must be included in each CCR, including specific words to use in providing definitions, describing possible sources of contaminants and potential health effects of specific contaminants. Systems also have lots of flexibility to add additional information that would be beneficial to their consumers.
The CCR includes data from monitoring completed during the previous calendar year. However, if you have monitoring waivers, or for another reason monitor less than once per year, use your most recent data. For example, if you monitor once every three years for lindane and detect lindane in a sample, report the same detection level each of the three years until you take a new sample. If the report contains detection data that is not from the calendar year indicated, the table must show the date of monitoring and the report must contain a brief statement explaining that the data presented is from the most recent monitoring done in compliance with regulations. You do not need to report monitoring results that are more than five years old.
The Consumer Confidence Report Rule: A Quick Reference Guide covers the basics of CCR content.
Consumer Confidence Reports: Required Information Summary outlines the basic required language and data content. It contains the specific Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) reference for each requirement.
Tools for Preparing a CCR
The CCRiWriter Exit tool will generate a report that includes all the required wording and will prompt you to add contact names and telephone numbers, source water description, sample results, description of violations (if any), and other system-specific information.
You must enter individual sample results, so the report can generate a table of sample results for only those contaminants which your system sampled and detected. For samples taken in prior years, you can select the appropriate year on the second screen for each contaminant entered.
You may register and prepare your report in the same site visit. You may also save a copy at the website if you do not have time to finish the report in one sitting.
Guidance Documents
The EPA Safe Drinking Water Act: Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) webpage contains links to helpful information that drinking water system owners and operators can use to assist them in complying with requirements of the CCR rule.
How water systems comply with the CCR requirements - Drinking water system owners and operators can use the materials and tools described on this webpage to assist them in complying with requirements of the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) Rule.
Consumer Confidence Reporting and Certification Tips - These tips remind you of items that should be included in CCRs, but may be forgotten. They include a description of who can prepare a CCR, examples of CCR titles, reporting detected contaminants, waivers or variances, reporting violations, suggestions on how to distribute CCRs, and instructions for submitting a copy of your CCR to the EPA.
Helpful Resources for Preparing Consumer Confidence Reports - Contains pointers to resources that may be helpful when preparing Consumer Confidence Reports, including instructions on how to access the EPA R8 online tool that can be used to verify any violations you need to report, and all regulated contaminant detection data that should be reported in your annual CCR.
Our Reporting Forms and Instructions web page contains links to several helpful documents that can be downloaded, including the Consumer Confidence Report Rule Certification Form for Systems Serving 10,000 or More Persons, the Consumer Confidence Report Rule Certification Form for Systems Serving Less Than 10,000 Persons, and the Consumer Confidence Reporting and Certification Tips, which contains reminders about items most frequently missed by systems operators and owners in previous years.