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What is a Consumer Confidence Report?
The 1996 amendment to the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires Community Water Systems (CWSs) to prepare and distribute an annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), which is a report on the quality of drinking water. The CCR must be distributed to water customers and consumers. A CWS is a public water system that serves at least 25 residents year round or that has 15 service connections serving year round residents.
A CCR must contain:
- Water system information
- Sources of the drinking water
- Definitions such as: Maximum Contaminant Level, Maximum Contaminant Level Goal and if needed Treatment Technique and Action Level
- Detected contaminants
- Compliance with other drinking water regulations
- Required educational information
CCR Reports Due July 1st, 2013
The CCR containing 2012 data must be delivered to customers and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality no later than July 1, 2013. If you are a wholesaler, you should provide monitoring results to the systems that purchase your water by April 1, 2013. These results are needed by the purchasing systems so that they may be incorporated into their own CCR.
The CCR allows the consumer to make an informed choice about the water with which they eat, drink, bathe and prepare food. The CCR is a great opportunity for the Community Water System to discuss with their customers what it takes to produce quality water. The intended audience of the CCR is the consumer of the water and it should be written on a level that may be easily understood by the layperson. If system improvements will be taking place in the future, the annual CCR is a chance to educate those who will foot the bill about what will need to be done and the costs involved for the improvements. It is also an excellent time for the system to brag about the kind of job its employees are doing. The quality of the CCR may be the deciding factor in the location of new industries in the community.
How does a water system create a Consumer Confidence Report?
- Visit Oklahoma’s Drinking Water Watch to retrieve data for your water system
- Create the CCR by using CCR iWriter or the CCR template and input the data generated from the Drinking Water Watch site (see Tools for Water Systems to Prepare a CCR)
- Distribute CCR to customers and consumers
- Complete the CCR certification of completion form and return to DEQ
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