Suppliers failed to release CCRs

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - The Region VII office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered 21 community public drinking water systems in Kansas to provide annual water quality reports for their customers or confirm that they have provided the reports.

The systems are those that have not met the new consumer confidence reporting requirements of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

The administrative orders cite the water systems for failing to prepare their 1999 water quality reports or failing to certify to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) that the reports were provided to customers. The 1999 CCR provides information on the compliance status of public water systems from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1999.

Acting Region VII Administrator William Rice in Kansas City said most reports will fit on a few sheets of paper. Rice praised KDHE for its work to help ensure that other Kansas systems completed and mailed the required water quality reports.

Overall, 93 percent of the drinking water systems in Region VII complied with the new rule. The national compliance average was 91 percent for the 54,000 community water systems across the country. "The water systems that have become subject to enforcement action are those that, despite states' best efforts, have failed to comply," said Rice. "EPA is taking the enforcement action in Kansas because the state does not yet have primary enforcement authority for the new rule."

The Consumer Confidence Report Rule is an important part of the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. The final rule requires all community water systems to prepare and distribute annual water quality reports. The first reports, for 1998, were due 19 October 1999. The second reports, for 1999, were due July 1, 2000, with future annual reports due every July 1.

Community water systems are public water systems that regularly serve at least 25 year-round residents or have at least 15 service connections used by year-round residents.