Every water utility in the United States is required by the Safe Drinking Water Act to publish an Annual Water Quality Report — also called a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) — by July 1 of each year. The report covers the previous calendar year's water quality data and must be delivered to every customer.
Most people receive it as a mailer insert or an email link and never look at it. That's a missed opportunity. Your CCR contains specific data about what's in your water — data that can help you make informed decisions about water treatment.
Where to Find Your CCR
If you didn't receive your CCR or can't find it, you can look it up online. The EPA maintains a database at epa.gov/ccr where you can search by utility name or ZIP code. The Environmental Working Group's Tap Water Database at ewg.org/tapwater is an even more useful resource — it translates the raw data into plain language and compares detected levels to health-based guidelines.
The Key Columns to Look At
- Contaminant: The name of the substance being measured. Look for TTHMs, HAA5s, nitrates, and any metals.
- MCLG (Maximum Contaminant Level Goal): The level at which no known health risk exists. If this is 0, the EPA considers any level of this contaminant to carry some health risk.
- MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level): The legal limit. Your utility must stay below this level to be "in compliance." This is often much higher than the MCLG.
- Level Detected: What was actually found in your water. Compare this to both the MCLG and the MCL.
- Violation: Whether your utility exceeded the legal MCL. Most utilities are in compliance — but compliance doesn't mean the water is without health risk.
If a contaminant has an MCLG of 0 and your utility is detecting any level of it, that's worth paying attention to — even if the utility is technically 'in compliance' with the legal MCL.
What to Do With This Information
Once you understand what's in your water, you can make informed decisions about treatment. For Central Florida homeowners, the most common concerns are hardness (not regulated, but causes significant damage), TTHMs and HAA5s (disinfection byproducts with MCLG of 0), and in some areas, nitrates and radium.
A whole-home carbon filter addresses TTHMs and HAA5s. A water softener addresses hardness. A tankless RO system at the drinking tap addresses nitrates, radium, and virtually everything else. Together, they give you complete coverage against what's in Central Florida water.