Rules for Public Notification
As part of the Right-to-Know Rules Public Notifications are an important form of contact between the water system and the consumers they serve, when problems occur. It is a consumer’s right to know what happened and how it is being or has been corrected. There are ten key elements to every Public Notice and three tier classifications depending on the seriousness of the issue. Delivery options depend on the tier of violation issued. Failure to notify the public in the required time period, will result in further violations. The complete Public Notification package needs to be submitted to the Division of Water within 10 days of final distribution to the public.
Each owner or operator of a public water system (community water systems, non-transient non-community water systems, and transient non-community water systems) must give notice for all violations of national primary drinking water regulations (NPDWR) and for other situation. Public notice requirements are divided into three tiers, to take into account the seriousness of the violation or situation and of any potential adverse health effects that may be involved. The public notice requirements for each violation or situation are determined by the tier to which it is assigned. Each public water system must provide public notice to persons served by the water system. Public water systems that sell or otherwise provide drinking water to other public water systems (i.e., to consecutive systems) are required to give public notice to the owner or operator of the consecutive system; the consecutive system is responsible for providing public notice to the persons it serves. A copy of the notice must also be sent to the Division of Water.
Tier Levels are assigned based on the severity of the situation or violation.
Tier I
| Acute violations or situations with serious or immediate health effects such as Microbiological, Nitrate/nitrite, Chlorine Dioxide, Waterborne disease outbreak or other waterborne emergency, & other situations with potential for serious health effects due to short term exposure
| Within 24 hours, PWS must contact the state and comply with any additional requirements the state determines
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Tier II
| Other violations & situations with serious health effects such as Violations of MCL, MRDL, and TT requirements that are not Tier I, Violations of the monitoring and testing requirements where the state determines it is a Tier II rather than a Tier I, & Turbidity violations (that are not Tier I)
| Within 30 days, to notify the public of possible health issues.
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Tier III
| Monitoring Violations, Failure to submit or incorrectly reporting data to state or Failure to comply with an established testing procedure
| Within 1 year, to notify the public of issues that do not have a direct impact on health.
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Facts sheets and templates are available at the link below
Requirements
There are 10 required elements in a public notice. Notices must contain:
• A description of the violation that occurred, including the contaminant(s) of concern, and the contaminant level(s);
• When the violation or situation occurred;
• The potential health effects (including standard required language);
• The population at risk, including subpopulations vulnerable if exposed to the contaminant in their drinking water;
• Whether alternate water supplies need to be used;
• What the water system is doing to correct the problem;
• Actions consumers can take;
• When the system expects a resolution to the problem;
• How to contact the water system for more information; and
• Language encouraging broader distribution of the notice
A complete Public Notice package will contain:
• A completed and signed Public Notice Certification
• A copy of the PN direct delivered for the primary method
• A copy of the PN Good Faith Efforts for the secondary method
• A list of locations of public postings is preferred, if the method is used for the secondary method