The Iowa Department of Natural Resources 2023 Annual Compliance Report issued in June of 2024 documents public water system violations.
Most of the reports involve monitoring and disclosure violations. The Iowa DNR regulates these types of water systems
CWS – Community Water System. A public water system that supplies water to the same population year-round.
NTNC – Non Transient Water System. A public water system that regularly supplies water to at least 25 of the same people at least six months per year. Examples are schools, factories, office buildings, and hospitals which have their own water systems.
TNC – Transient Non Community Water System. A public water system that provides water in a place such as a gas station or campground where people do not remain for long periods of time.
Find a full copy of the Iowa drinking Water Annual Compliance report at iowadnr.gov.
Inspection results
“2023 Report Highlights Iowa’s inventory of public water supply (PWS) systems was 1,834, a slight decrease from 2022. The percentage of systems in compliance with all health-based standards in 2023 was 97.2%, while the percentage of population served by systems compliant with all health-based standards was 99.5%.”
20 percent of systems have monitoring and reporting violations
“Major monitoring and reporting requirements were met by 80.4% of systems. The percentage of population served by systems in compliance with the major monitoring and reporting requirements was 92.4%.”
Violations
“Health-based drinking water standards were met by 97.2% of the 1,834 regulated PWSs.
There were 52 PWSs that had 97 violations of a health-based drinking water standards, maximum residual disinfectant level, treatment technique, or action level. “
“Nine regulated contaminants were found at levels that exceeded the health-based standards during 2023, and five treatment techniques were not met. The standards are shown in the chart on the following page, along with the percentage each contributed to the total number of health-based standard violations.”
Health impacts
“No waterborne diseases or deaths were reported from Iowa PWSs in 2023. Of the nearly 3.07 million people served by Iowa’s PWSs, over 3.05 million people regularly received water from systems meeting all health-based drinking water standards.”
Nitrates are top contaminants
Nitrate violations accounted for 39.2 percent of health-based standard violations. Other top health findings
Failure to complete start-up procedures 24.7 percent
Arsenic, 8.25 percent
E. coli 7.2 percent
Monitoring violations
There were 596 major monitoring violations in 2023 at 251 systems. At least one reporting violation was incurred by 188 systems, for a total of 356 reporting violations.
Track your water system
Find DNR reports on every Iowa public water system online at programs.iowadnr.gov/sourcewater