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Compliance Assurance

Monitoring and Evaluation

Public water systems are required to monitor the quality of the water distributed to their consumers and ensure that water provided to consumers does not exceed promulgated health-based maximum contaminant level or treatment technique requirements.  The required monitoring includes determination of the level of microbiological, chemical, physical, and radiological contaminants in their drinking water.  The levels of detected contaminants are compared to an allowable maximum contaminant level.  Detection of a contaminant in a finished water supply above the allowed maximum contaminant level may require public notification, and, in the case of a maximum contaminant level violation, the notification must include health effects information and explain any need for an alternate water source such as bottled water.  Further, public water systems that exceed allowable levels of contaminants may be required to add or modify operational practices to reduce the contaminant level and achieve compliance. 

The frequency of required monitoring is dependent on the type of water system, the water source, and the presence of contaminant generating activities in the area surrounding the water source.  All public water systems must test for microbiological contaminants.  Because of the short-term exposure of the population at transient non-community systems, the only chemical monitoring requirement is for nitrate, since this is generally the only common acute chemical contaminant.  Non-transient non-community public water systems and community public water systems must monitor for many chemical contaminants because of the potential long-term exposure of the water users.  Systems using surface water supplies have different monitoring requirements than ground waters due to the different paths of contamination that the water sources are exposed to.

Certain monitoring requirements may be reduced through an assessment by the division of the vulnerability of the water supply.  These vulnerability assessments are an evaluation of any existing sources of contamination that may affect the quality of the source water prior to treatment.

Enforcement Activities

The escalating enforcement process for drinking water is similar to that employed by the division for wastewater discharges:

• Identification of violation
• Informal notification of public water system
• Formal notification of public water system
• Formal enforcement action

This predictable escalation of response to violations is predicated on the assumption that regulated entities generally desire to be in full compliance and that violations are generally the result of accidents or ignorance of all requirements.  Egregious violations resulting in environmental harm or disease outbreaks or willful violations (such as those associated with data falsifications) demand the immediate and full application of the division’s formal enforcement and penalty authorities.

Consumer Confidence Report

Another mechanism to help assure long-term compliance by public water systems is the requirement to provide consumer confidence reports.  The report must include:

• the telephone number and name of the system's local contact and information about public participation opportunities;
• all sources of drinking water used by the system including a summary of the Source Water Assessment Report (SWAP) if completed;
• the treatment techniques used;
• definitions of terms used in the report;
• a list of all contaminants tested for;
• table(s) that lists contaminants detected in the water the last time they were tested.  This table must include the date of sample, the applicable standards, the level detected, most likely source of the contaminant and any required health effects information; and
• any violations for the reporting year including length of the violation, any pertinent health effects information, and steps the system is taking to correct the violation;
• other required information regarding drinking water and vulnerable populations as required by the US EPA;
• the telephone number of the EPA hotline.

The Colorado program provides extensive assistance to water systems to ensure their compliance with the Consumer Confidence Report requirements.

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