What is a water quality report or Consumer Confidence Report (CCR)?

They are the same document: the annual summary of your drinking water's tested quality that every community water system must give its customers. The requirement comes from the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (EPA), and the report covers the previous calendar year.

How do I find my water quality report?

Three routes: EPA's national CCR search tool (sdwis.epa.gov/fylccr), your utility's own website, or the paper copy delivered with a bill each spring. If you don't know who supplies your water, our who-is-my-water-company finder names the system from your ZIP, then links you to its report.

When does the annual water quality report come out?

By July 1 each year, covering the previous calendar year's test results (EPA). A report you receive in the spring or early summer describes the prior year, not the current one.

What's the difference between MCL and MCLG?

EPA defines the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level) as the highest level of a contaminant allowed in drinking water — the enforceable limit — and the MCLG (Maximum Contaminant Level Goal) as the level below which there is no known or expected health risk — a health target, not a legal limit.

Does my water quality report show hardness?

Usually not. Hardness is an aesthetic quality with no federal limit, so a CCR isn't required to list it and most don't. Where a report does, look for a line labeled hardness or calcium carbonate in mg/L. Otherwise, our measured county median fills the gap — enter your ZIP on the lookup.

Which water systems have to publish a CCR?

Community water systems — those serving at least 25 year-round residents or with at least 15 service connections (EPA). Private wells are not covered, because no utility treats or reports their water.

What does a water quality report not cover?

It reports the utility's treated water at compliance points for one prior year — not the water at your own tap after your home's plumbing, not private wells, and not aesthetic qualities like hardness that carry no federal limit. Questions about whether a level is acceptable belong with EPA or your own report.

Water quality report (CCR): find & read yours

Once a year a dense, small-print document lands with your water bill — or a link to it does — and most people file it unread. When you do open it, columns of acronyms and contaminant names make it hard to tell what the numbers actually say about the water coming out of your tap.

That document is your right to know. Since the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, every community water system in the country has had to hand its customers a plain accounting of what is in their water, once a year, for free (EPA). Reading it is the difference between guessing about your water and knowing.

This guide does two things the utility portals and vendor blogs don't: it shows you exactly how to find your own report and read every section of it, and it decodes the one line those reports almost always leave out — water hardness — against measured data for 2,977 US counties. We sell nothing, and we send every safety question back to EPA.

A water quality report — officially a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) — is the annual summary of your drinking water's tested quality that every community water system must publish by July 1. Find yours through EPA's CCR search tool or your utility, and this guide shows how to read every section, including the hardness line most reports leave out.

The six sections EPA requires in every Consumer Confidence Report. Source: US EPA.

The document

What a water quality report is

A water quality report and a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) are the same document — two names for the annual drinking-water quality summary your utility owes you. The name "Consumer Confidence Report" is the regulatory term; "water quality report" is what most utilities print on the cover.

The requirement dates to the 1996 reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which gave the public a right to an annual, written account of local drinking-water quality (EPA). The report covers the previous calendar year's testing and is delivered by July 1 each year.

The obligation falls on community water systems. EPA defines a community water system as one that serves at least 25 year-round residents or has at least 15 service connections — the systems that pipe water to homes. If you are on such a system, a report is owed to you every year; if you are on a private well, no agency publishes one, because no utility treats or tests your water for you.

Find yours

How to find your water quality report

There are three reliable routes to your own report. The most direct is EPA's national CCR search tool, which indexes reports by state and system. Your utility's own website is the second — most post the current year's report on a "water quality" page, and the paper copy arrives with a bill or a mailed notice each spring. Start at EPA's CCR search tool, or read EPA's consumer guidance.

The catch with EPA's tool is that it asks you to pick your state and then your system by name — which is no help if you don't know who supplies your water. That is exactly the gap our companion finder closes: enter a ZIP and it names the community water system whose mapped service area covers it, then hands you straight back to the report. Don't know who supplies your water? Our who-is-my-water-company finder names the system from your ZIP, then links you straight to its report.

Read it

How to read your CCR

Every CCR carries the same required sections, so once you can read one you can read any of them. EPA specifies what the report must contain:

Water system information — a contact name and phone number, public-participation opportunities, and information for non-English-speaking customers where relevant (EPA).
Source of your water — the type, name, and general location of the water sources, and where to find the source-water assessment (EPA).
Definitions — a glossary of the terms used, including MCL and MCLG (EPA).
Detected contaminants — a table of the regulated and unregulated contaminants that were detected, the likely source of each, and the level measured against the legal limit (EPA).
Violations and health-effects language — for any exceedance, the report must explain it in EPA's required health-effects language (EPA).
Educational information — statements about vulnerable populations and Cryptosporidium, plus information on lead, nitrate, or arsenic where those may be a concern (EPA).

The heart of the report is the detected-contaminants table, and two column headings decide how you read every row: MCL and MCLG.

MCL is the enforceable legal limit; MCLG is the health goal. Definitions: US EPA.

EPA defines the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) as "the highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water" — the enforceable legal ceiling. The Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) is "the level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health" — a health-based target, not a limit anyone can be cited for missing. The MCL is what the law requires; the MCLG is what the science would prefer.

A row shows each contaminant's measured level next to those two numbers, usually in parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb). Whether a given level is acceptable for you is a question for EPA or your own report — this page explains the document, it does not judge your water. See the EPA CCR program page for the full rule.

Our expertise

The hardness line — what your CCR does (and doesn't) tell you

Here is the line most people are actually looking for, and the one most reports don't carry: water hardness. Hardness is not an EPA-regulated contaminant — it is an aesthetic quality with no federal limit — so a CCR is not required to list it, and most leave it off entirely. When a report does include it, look for a line labeled hardness or calcium carbonate, usually reported in mg/L (the same number as ppm).

When your report is silent on hardness, the measured map fills the gap. Our data aggregates 2.81 million USGS/EPA lab results into a measured median for 2,977 US counties — the number a CCR rarely prints. Enter your ZIP on the lookup to get your county's median and its soft-to-very-hard band, convert it between mg/L and grains per gallon, and place it on the hardness scale. Get it on the water-hardness-by-ZIP lookup, place it on the hardness scale, or convert ppm to grains per gallon.

The two sources answer different questions. Your utility's reported hardness, when it exists, describes the treated water leaving the plant; the measured county median describes the ambient groundwater and surface water around you. Together they bracket what comes out of your tap — and unlike every other explainer on this topic, we have no water-treatment product waiting at the end of the sentence.

Scope & limits

What a CCR does not cover

A water quality report is a snapshot of the utility's treated water at compliance monitoring points, for one prior calendar year. It is not a reading of the water at your kitchen tap, and it cannot see what your own home's plumbing and fixtures add between the street and the faucet.

Three limits are worth holding in mind. A CCR does not cover private wells, because no utility serves them. It does not cover aesthetic qualities with no federal limit, hardness among them. And it is historical, not live — the report you get in spring describes last year. For any question about whether a specific level is acceptable, EPA and your own report are the authorities, not this page. On a private well? A CCR won't help — start with well water hardness.

Under a 2024 revision to the CCR Rule, community water systems serving more than 10,000 people will issue their report twice a year rather than once, with the first compliance date on January 1, 2027 (EPA). Until then, the annual July 1 report described here is the rule in force.

Questions

Frequently asked

What is a water quality report or Consumer Confidence Report (CCR)?: They are the same document: the annual summary of your drinking water's tested quality that every community water system must give its customers. The requirement comes from the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (EPA), and the report covers the previous calendar year.
How do I find my water quality report?: Three routes: EPA's national CCR search tool (sdwis.epa.gov/fylccr), your utility's own website, or the paper copy delivered with a bill each spring. If you don't know who supplies your water, our who-is-my-water-company finder names the system from your ZIP, then links you to its report.
When does the annual water quality report come out?: By July 1 each year, covering the previous calendar year's test results (EPA). A report you receive in the spring or early summer describes the prior year, not the current one.
What's the difference between MCL and MCLG?: EPA defines the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level) as the highest level of a contaminant allowed in drinking water — the enforceable limit — and the MCLG (Maximum Contaminant Level Goal) as the level below which there is no known or expected health risk — a health target, not a legal limit.
Does my water quality report show hardness?: Usually not. Hardness is an aesthetic quality with no federal limit, so a CCR isn't required to list it and most don't. Where a report does, look for a line labeled hardness or calcium carbonate in mg/L. Otherwise, our measured county median fills the gap — enter your ZIP on the lookup.
Which water systems have to publish a CCR?: Community water systems — those serving at least 25 year-round residents or with at least 15 service connections (EPA). Private wells are not covered, because no utility treats or reports their water.
What does a water quality report not cover?: It reports the utility's treated water at compliance points for one prior year — not the water at your own tap after your home's plumbing, not private wells, and not aesthetic qualities like hardness that carry no federal limit. Questions about whether a level is acceptable belong with EPA or your own report.

Next: find who your water company is, check your county's measured hardness by ZIP, or learn what water hardness is.

By Marko Visic, MPharm, BSc Physics. Source: US EPA Consumer Confidence Report Rule; measured hardness from USGS/EPA Water Quality Portal. Data last verified 2026-08-19. Methodology.

Cite this page: “Water Quality Report (CCR): Find & Read Yours.” Hard Water Map. Retrieved 2026-08-19, https://hardwatermap.com/water-quality-report/