How to Read Your Annual Water Quality Report (CCR)

What Is a Consumer Confidence Report?

A Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) is a document your water utility is required by federal law to deliver to you every year. It summarizes where your drinking water comes from, what contaminants were detected during testing, how those levels compare to federal safety limits, and whether any violations occurred.

The CCR requirement was established under the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. Every community water system (CWS) serving at least 15 connections or 25 year-round residents must produce one. That covers about 50,000 water systems serving roughly 300 million Americans. Reports must be delivered to customers by July 1 each year, covering data from the previous calendar year.

The goal is transparency: you have the right to know exactly what’s in the water you’re paying for. But a CCR is only useful if you know how to read it — and most people don’t. This guide walks you through every section.

How to Get Your CCR

Mail or Water Bill

Many utilities mail CCRs directly or include them as inserts in water bills. Larger systems sometimes send a postcard with a URL instead. If your system serves more than 100,000 people, the CCR must also be posted online.

Your Utility’s Website

Search your utility’s name plus “water quality report” or “CCR.” Most utilities post current and archived reports as downloadable PDFs.

EPA’s CCR Search Tool

The EPA maintains a searchable directory of CCRs at epa.gov/ccr. Enter your state and find links to reports organized by water system.

Request Directly

If you can’t find your report online, call your water utility. They’re legally required to provide a copy. The utility’s contact information is typically on your water bill.

Private Wells

If your home is on a private well, you won’t receive a CCR. Private wells are not regulated by the EPA, and no one monitors them on your behalf. You’re responsible for testing your own water — see our well water testing guide for details.

Key Sections of a CCR

Every CCR follows a general structure, though formatting varies by utility. Here are the sections you’ll find in most reports.

Water Source Information

This section identifies where your drinking water originates. Sources fall into two categories:

• Surface water: Rivers, lakes, reservoirs, or streams. Surface water is more susceptible to agricultural runoff, industrial discharge, and microbiological contamination, so it generally requires more treatment (coagulation, filtration, disinfection).
• Groundwater: Wells and aquifers. Groundwater is naturally filtered through soil and rock, but it can contain minerals, arsenic, radon, and other geologic contaminants. It may or may not be disinfected depending on the system.

Some systems blend both sources or purchase treated water from a regional supplier. The CCR should indicate which.

Treatment Methods

Many CCRs describe the treatment processes applied to raw water before it reaches your tap. Common methods include coagulation/flocculation, sedimentation, sand filtration, granular activated carbon, UV disinfection, chlorination, and chloramination. Understanding the treatment helps contextualize the detected contaminants table — for instance, disinfection byproducts (like TTHMs and HAA5s) are a side effect of the chlorination process, not contaminants from the source.

Detected Contaminants Table

This is the most important section of your CCR. It lists every contaminant that was detected during the reporting period, along with several key columns (explained in detail below).

Violations and Compliance

If your utility exceeded a legal limit, failed to collect required samples, or missed a monitoring deadline, the CCR must disclose it. Look for sections labeled “violations,” “compliance,” or “Tier 1/Tier 2 public notices.”

Health Effects Language

For any contaminant detected above its MCL, the CCR must include specific EPA-approved language describing the potential health effects of exposure. This language can sound alarming — it’s legally required even when the exceedance is minor or temporary.

Understanding the Contaminant Table

The detected contaminants table is the core of every CCR. Here’s what each column means:

Contaminant Name

The specific substance detected, such as “Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs),” “Nitrate,” “Lead,” or “Copper.” Contaminants are grouped by type — inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals, disinfection byproducts, radioactive contaminants, and microbiological.

Level Detected (or Range)

The concentration found during testing. This may be reported as a single value (the highest or average detection), a range (lowest to highest across sampling points), or a 90th percentile value (for lead and copper). The units vary by contaminant — check whether the number is in ppm, ppb, or pCi/L.

MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level)

The legal limit enforced by the EPA. Utilities must keep contaminant levels at or below the MCL. If a system exceeds the MCL, it’s in violation and must notify the public and take corrective action.

MCLG (Maximum Contaminant Level Goal)

The level at which no known or expected health risk exists, including a margin of safety. MCLGs are non-enforceable goals — they represent what the EPA considers truly safe. For carcinogens (like arsenic and several disinfection byproducts), the MCLG is set to zero because there is no known safe threshold for cancer-causing substances.

Violation (Yes/No)

Indicates whether the detected level exceeded the MCL during the reporting period. Note: a “No” doesn’t necessarily mean the water is risk-free — it means the utility met the legal requirement.

Typical Source

A brief description of where the contaminant commonly originates. Examples: “Corrosion of household plumbing” (lead), “Runoff from fertilizer use” (nitrate), “By-product of drinking water disinfection” (TTHMs).

Key Terms Decoded

CCRs use technical terminology that can be confusing. Here’s a plain-language glossary:

• MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level): The highest legal level of a contaminant in drinking water. Enforceable.
• MCLG (Maximum Contaminant Level Goal): The ideal safe level. Not enforceable. Often lower than the MCL.
• Action Level (AL): Used for lead and copper instead of MCLs. The AL for lead is 15 ppb at the 90th percentile. If more than 10% of sampled homes exceed the AL, the utility must take corrective action.
• MRDL (Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level): The maximum amount of disinfectant (chlorine, chloramine) allowed in treated water. Set high enough to ensure disinfection but low enough to limit taste and health effects.
• MRDLG (Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level Goal): The non-enforceable goal for disinfectant levels.
• ppm (parts per million): Equivalent to mg/L. Used for more common contaminants like nitrate, fluoride, and disinfectants.
• ppb (parts per billion): Equivalent to micrograms/L. One thousand times smaller than ppm. Used for trace contaminants like lead, arsenic, and PFAS.
• pCi/L (picocuries per liter): A measure of radioactivity. Used for radium, uranium, and radon.
• ND (Non-Detect): The contaminant was below the lab’s detection limit. This is the best possible result.
• Range vs. Average: Some contaminants are reported as a range across sampling locations. The highest value in the range is what matters for comparison to the MCL.
• 90th Percentile: Used for lead and copper testing. It means 90% of tested samples were at or below this level. The remaining 10% may be higher.

”Detected” vs. “Violation”

This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of a CCR. A contaminant can be detected — sometimes at levels well above zero — without constituting a violation.

Example: Lead

Suppose your CCR reports a 90th percentile lead level of 12 ppb. The Action Level is 15 ppb. No violation. But 12 ppb is far above the MCLG of zero, and the 90th percentile means that 10% of sampled homes had levels above 12 ppb — potentially much higher.

Example: Arsenic

Your CCR reports arsenic at 8 ppb. The MCL is 10 ppb. No violation. But the MCLG is zero. Long-term exposure to 8 ppb arsenic carries documented health risks, including increased cancer risk.

The takeaway: “No violation” does not mean “no risk.” Always compare detected levels to the MCLG, not just the MCL, and consider the duration and consistency of exposure.

What to Do If You See Violations

If your CCR includes violations or if detected levels concern you, take these steps:

1. Contact your utility. Ask what corrective actions are underway. Utilities that violate an MCL must notify customers and submit a remediation plan to the state. You have the right to ask for specifics and a timeline.
2. Get an independent test. A $20-$50 mail-in lab test from services like Tap Score or SimpleLab measures contaminant levels at your specific tap — not just the system-wide average.
3. Install targeted filtration. Match the filter to your contaminants. An NSF 53-certified pitcher handles lead; NSF P473 targets PFAS; a reverse osmosis system provides the broadest removal. See our filter pitcher guide for recommendations.
4. Check WaterVerge. Search your city to see violation history, trend data, lead levels, and PFAS detections compiled from EPA databases. Compare your utility’s performance to state and national benchmarks.
5. Report to your state. If you believe your utility is failing to disclose violations or take corrective action, contact your state’s drinking water program. The EPA maintains a directory of state programs.

CCR Limitations

Your CCR is a valuable document, but it has significant limitations you should understand:

Only Regulated Contaminants

The CCR only reports on contaminants the EPA requires testing for — currently about 90 substances. There are thousands of chemicals that may be present in drinking water but aren’t yet regulated, including most PFAS compounds, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and many industrial chemicals. Some newer CCRs include PFAS data from UCMR 5 monitoring, but it’s not yet universal.

System-Wide Averages

The contaminant levels in a CCR represent the water as it leaves the treatment plant or at designated sampling points in the distribution system. They don’t reflect what happens inside your home. Lead from service lines, solder, and fixtures adds lead after the system sampling point. Bacterial growth can occur in pipes with low disinfectant residual. The only way to know what’s in your specific tap water is a home test.

Annual Snapshot

Your CCR covers one calendar year of testing data. Water quality fluctuates seasonally (higher turbidity after storms, higher disinfection byproducts in summer) and can change year to year as source water conditions, treatment methods, or infrastructure age. A single CCR is a snapshot, not a complete picture.

Testing Frequency Varies

Not every contaminant is tested every year. Some — like radioactive contaminants (radium, uranium) and certain inorganic chemicals (barium, chromium-6) — are tested every 3 to 9 years under EPA rules. If your CCR shows “most recent sample: 2022” for a contaminant, it means no new data has been collected since then.

How WaterVerge Complements Your CCR

Your CCR tells you what’s in your water for a single year. WaterVerge compiles data from multiple EPA databases — SDWIS (Safe Drinking Water Information System), UCMR 5 (PFAS monitoring), and the Lead and Copper Rule — to give you a more complete picture:

• Multi-year violation history: See whether your utility has a pattern of violations or if an issue was a one-time occurrence
• Lead and copper trends: Track 90th percentile levels over multiple sampling periods, not just the latest result
• PFAS detections: View UCMR 5 testing results for up to 29 PFAS compounds, including comparisons to the new federal MCLs
• City-level grades: Understand how your water system compares to others in your state and nationally
• Search your city now to see data that goes beyond what any single CCR can show