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Drinking Water Data - Serious Violator Report

This report counts public water systems that are current serious violators as of December 31, 2012. The list was last updated on April 1, 2013.

A serious violator is defined as a public water system with unresolved serious, multiple, and/or continuing violations, as identified by the quarterly application of US EPA's Drinking Water Enforcement Response Policy, that must either return to compliance or be addressed by a formal enforcement action within six months.

US EPA designates serious violators so that the drinking water system and the primacy agency will act quickly to resolve the most significant drinking water violations. Many public water systems with violations, however, are not serious violators. Operators and the primacy agencies are expected to correct the violations at non-serious violators as well, but without the more strict requirements and deadlines applicable to serious violators. If the violations at a non-serious violator are left uncorrected, that system may become a serious violator. When a serious violator has returned to compliance, it is no longer designated a serious violator. US EPA updates its serious violator list on a quarterly basis.

 
State
Territory
Tribe
Number of Public Water Systems Number of Serious Violators Percent of Serious Violators   Number of Serious Violators Percent of Serious Violators 0 100 200 300 400 0% 10% 20% 30%
Alabama 607 0 0.0%    
Alaska 1,525 95 6.2%    
Arizona 1,542 62 4.0%    
Arkansas 1,087 33 3.0%    
California 7,750 113 1.5%    
Colorado 2,029 21 1.0%    
Connecticut 2,543 49 1.9%    
Delaware 493 11 2.2%    
Florida 5,518 50 0.9%    
Georgia 2,426 29 1.2%    
Hawaii 134 0 0.0%    
Idaho 1,944 81 4.2%    
Illinois 5,543 15 0.3%    
Indiana 4,147 50 1.2%    
Iowa 1,882 16 0.9%    
Kansas 1,015 39 3.8%    
Kentucky 457 9 2.0%    
Louisiana 1,387 95 6.8%    
Maine 1,866 80 4.3%    
Maryland 3,488 10 0.3%    
Massachusetts 1,831 0 0.0%    
Michigan 11,028 21 0.2%    
Minnesota 6,974 3 0.0%    
Mississippi (1) 1,238 324 26.2%    
Missouri 2,734 63 2.3%    
Montana 2,140 11 0.5%    
Nebraska 1,311 19 1.4%    
Nevada 567 17 3.0%    
New Hampshire 2,427 49 2.0%    
New Jersey 3,791 33 0.9%    
New Mexico 1,141 51 4.5%    
New York 8,718 96 1.1%    
North Carolina 5,992 13 0.2%    
North Dakota 620 4 0.6%    
Ohio 4,776 70 1.5%    
Oklahoma 1,676 52 3.1%    
Oregon 2,553 74 2.9%    
Pennsylvania 8,978 94 1.0%    
Rhode Island 487 3 0.6%    
South Carolina 1,439 1 0.1%    
South Dakota 645 7 1.1%    
Tennessee 879 4 0.5%    
Texas 6,949 352 5.1%    
Utah 1,013 60 5.9%    
Vermont 1,348 66 4.9%    
Virginia 2,732 36 1.3%    
Washington 4,338 73 1.7%    
West Virginia 1,013 75 7.4%    
Wisconsin 11,399 55 0.5%    
Wyoming 797 4 0.5%    
American Samoa 80 9 11.2%    
District of Columbia 6 0 0.0%    
Federated Territories of Micronesia 0 0
Guam 9 1 11.1%    
Marshall Islands 0 0
Northern Mariana Islands 70 6 8.6%    
Palau 0 0
Puerto Rico 481 142 29.5%    
Virgin Islands 300 9 3.0%    
EPA Region 1 Tribes 6 0 0.0%    
EPA Region 2 Tribes 8 0 0.0%    
EPA Region 3 Tribes 0 0
EPA Region 4 Tribes 32 0 0.0%    
EPA Region 5 Tribes 101 0 0.0%    
EPA Region 6 Tribes 85 6 7.1%    
EPA Region 7 Tribes 13 0 0.0%    
EPA Region 8 Tribes 134 3 2.2%    
EPA Region 9 Tribes 323 21 6.5%    
EPA Region 10 Tribes 122 18 14.8%    
Navajo Nation 161 14 8.7%    
0 100 200 300 400 0% 10% 20% 30%
  1. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act Radionuclides Rule, all community water systems are responsible for monitoring for the presence of radioactive substances in their drinking water and reporting the results to the state. The State of Mississippi provides water testing services to all of its public water systems. Because Mississippi has to date supplied EPA with valid initial monitoring results for only a small number of its community water systems, almost all of the CWSs in the state have been in violation of the monitoring requirements of the Radionuclides Rule since early 2008.

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