Providing Safe Drinking Water in America: 2016 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report

• During calendar year 2016 the number of active PWS in the U.S. was 150,438. 
• While the majority of the U.S. population served by PWS receives safe drinking water, many PWS incurred violations of federal drinking water quality standards. The number of PWS with at least one violation was 51,573 in 2016. 
  • The data submitted by primacy agencies indicate that 11,938 of all PWS in the U.S. had violations of health-based standards in 2016, while monitoring and reporting violations were reported for 39,580 of all PWS. 
  • The number of systems that are serious violators was 4,470 in 2016. Systems typically become serious violators after multiple violations over a sustained period. Small PWS comprise the vast majority of all these PWS. 
• In 2016, EPA and primacy agencies initiated 30,478 enforcement actions in response to drinking water violations at PWS within their jurisdictions. 

States, territories, Navajo Nation and EPA should continue working together and with the regulated entities to return violating systems to compliance, as efficiently and effectively as possible. Pursuing the more holistic, systems-based approach to addressing noncompliance in all primacy agencies is an important element of improving performance among PWS.

Data completeness and accuracy must remain a high priority for EPA and the primacy agencies. Without high quality data from primacy agencies, EPA cannot fulfill its responsibility to fully assess the state of compliance of the nation’s PWS and to communicate to the public, Congress and other oversight bodies.

Some of the next steps EPA, states and the drinking water stakeholders have agreed to undertake include:

• providing online error reporting on EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online;
• encouraging states to issue regular reminders to water systems of their compliance monitoring schedules;
• negotiating grant conditions with several states to encourage them to follow quality assurance/quality control plans for drinking water violation data reported to EPA and address the differences in interpretation of the regulation; and
• working with all states to implement the EPA Order CIO 2105.0 addressing requirements for quality management systems.

Primacy agencies will continue to pursue enforcement actions against violating PWS - including those in Indian country - both to expeditiously return systems to compliance and to deter future violations. EPA and primacy agencies will continue to implement the Enforcement Response Policy (ERP), which has already decreased the number of PWS in serious noncompliance. EPA will continue to work with primacy agencies as they implement the ERP by providing training and support as needed.

EPA will continue its efforts to support PWS serving 10,000 or fewer consumers through the capacity development program and other sustainability efforts. Recognizing the challenges facing these drinking water systems, EPA provides tools and assistance to develop system capacity (the technical, financial and managerial capacity of a system to provide safe drinking water). The program also provides information about treatment technology options for small systems.

• Additional information on EPA’s capacity development efforts can be found at Building the Capacity of Drinking Water Systems, including numerous assistance activities, such as on-site visits and the distribution of easy-to-read guides and checklists.
• The Local Government Environmental Assistance Network (LGEAN) web site, a source of information on current and developing SDWA requirements (as well as technical assistance, peer counseling and financial guidance). LGEAN can also be accessed by calling toll-free 1-877-TO-LGEAN (865-4326).
• The Financing for Environmental Compliance web site providing financial and technical assistance resources to help communities create a plan to finance environmental capital assets.
• Additional tools and resources can be found at Sustainable Water Infrastructure.

EPA believes that raising the public’s awareness of the violations at PWS will encourage PWS to improve their compliance. EPA’s transition to a dashboard format to annually summarize violation and enforcement data for public water systems increases the public’s access to the data. The format allows users easier access to additional data through hyperlinks provided in this dashboard format along with the ability to download the data.