How to find and read your water quality report

The short answer

• Where it is: Community water systems must deliver a water quality report, officially a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), by July 1 each year. It covers testing from the previous calendar year. Look on your supplier's website or in your mail, or use EPA's online search. If you rent, ask your landlord or manager which system serves the building.
• How to read it: Go to the table of detected contaminants. For each row, compare the level found, and the top of the range, with the MCL (the legal limit) in the same units. Then check the violation column and the footnotes.
• Goals are not limits: The MCLG, or in California the PHG, is a health goal. A level above the goal but below the MCL is legal, but worth understanding, especially for nitrate, arsenic and lead.
• Private wells get no report. Well owners are responsible for their own testing. In Fresno County, start with the county's Environmental Health Division.
• The report is not an alert. Urgent problems, such as E. coli or nitrate above the limit, must be announced within 24 hours, separately.

Step 1: Find out who supplies your water

• Check your water bill. The supplier's name is on it. Many suppliers post the report under "water quality" on their websites.
• If you don't pay a water bill, for example because you rent, ask your landlord or building manager. Federal rules require systems to make a good-faith effort to reach people who don't get bills, such as renters and workers.
• Search online. EPA's Find Your Local CCR tool lists reports by state and county, though EPA notes that not every system's report is there.
• In California, the State Water Board's Drinking Water Watch lets you search public water systems by name or county and look up sampling results. It also links to a map of water system service areas.
• Call the system. Every report must list a phone number for questions, and systems must give a copy to anyone who asks.

In Fresno: The city name in your address does not settle who supplies you; the City of Fresno, for example, also serves many county islands outside city limits. The City's reports are linked from its Water Quality and Testing page, and Fresno.gov/WaterQuality opens the current one. The 2025 report, dated June 2026, covers testing from January 1 to December 31, 2025, and states that the City met all state and federal standards for that period. For a copy in Spanish, Hmong or Punjabi, call (559) 621-2489; for large print, (559) 621-5300.

Who does not get a report

• Private wells. EPA says private wells are not regulated under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and their owners are responsible for safe water. In Fresno County, the Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Division, (559) 600-3357, 1221 Fulton Street, 3rd Floor, permits wells in unincorporated areas and lists help with reading lab results among its resources. In California, use a lab accredited by the State Water Board's Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP). For what to test and why, see Private wells and nitrate: testing, health risks and California help.
• Renters whose home uses a well (California). Under a state law known as AB 2454, a landlord whose rental gets water from a private well must take part in a free testing program funded or overseen by the state's water boards where one covers the area, and share results with residents within 10 days.
• Very small systems. A "state small water system" serves 5 to 14 connections and falls outside the report rules. Fresno County permits, monitors and inspects these systems; ask Environmental Health about yours.
• Schools and workplaces with their own water supply. Federal report rules cover community water systems only. In California, a school or workplace system that regularly serves at least 25 of the same people for more than six months a year must also prepare a report.

Step 2: Read the report in this order

1. The summary and any violations. Starting with reports due in 2027, a summary at the front must list violations. Until then, look for a "violation" column, highlighted rows or a violation section. The report must say how long a violation lasted, its possible health effects and what the system did about it.
2. Where the water comes from: groundwater, surface water or both. Sources can change during the year.
3. The table of detected contaminants. Only contaminants found at or above a reporting threshold are listed; lower results may appear as "ND" (not detected).
4. Special statements. Every report has set language about lead and about people who may be more vulnerable to germs in water. Nitrate and arsenic statements appear when levels pass set points.
5. Lead and service lines, including how to see the system's service line inventory.
6. How to take part: public meetings where water decisions are made.

The terms in the table

Units matter: mg/L is parts per million (ppm), µg/L is parts per billion (ppb), and ng/L is parts per trillion (ppt). Reports show each limit, goal and result in the same units, so read across one row. A printable water quality report column guide decodes every column and abbreviation.

Why a high number is not always a violation

For many contaminants, compliance is judged by an average or a confirmation sample, not one result. The City of Fresno's 2025 table shows nitrate with a citywide average of 4.80 mg/L and a range up to 12, with no violation. A footnote says one well's high result was traced to a lab error, and that nitrate compliance is based on averaging the first sample with a confirmation sample. Its 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) row shows a range up to 5.2 ng/L against an MCL of 5; the footnote says that well was taken out of service in December 2025.

Read the footnotes: they explain the high numbers and name the wells involved. A citywide average blends many sources, and Fresno draws on about 260 wells plus treated surface water. To learn which sources serve your street, ask the water system.

Nitrate and arsenic in the Central Valley

California's SAFER program (Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience), created by a 2019 law, funds help for communities without safe, affordable drinking water. Its 2026 needs assessment found that nitrate, arsenic and TCP were the top contaminants behind health-standard violations among systems on the state's "Failing" list, which held 406 systems serving about 645,000 people as of December 31, 2025. Fresno County was one of the three counties with the most private wells in at-risk areas. The SAFER Dashboard shows which systems are on the Failing list and, for smaller community systems, which are At-Risk.

Nitrate typically comes from fertilizer, septic systems and sewage, and natural deposits. The federal and California limit is 10 mg/L measured as nitrogen. Above that level, nitrate is a particular risk for infants under 6 months: it can interfere with the blood's ability to carry oxygen, causing shortness of breath and blue skin. California's required wording adds pregnant people and people with certain enzyme deficiencies. Levels can rise quickly after rain or farming activity. If your report shows nitrate above 5 and you are pregnant or use tap water for infant formula, ask your clinician or your baby's clinician what water to use.

Arsenic typically comes from natural deposits, orchard runoff and some industrial wastes. The limit is 10 µg/L (ppb). California's PHG is 0.004 µg/L, 2,500 times lower, because the limit also weighs the cost of removing arsenic. People who drink water above the limit for many years may have skin damage or circulation problems and a higher cancer risk. Reports with arsenic above 5 µg/L must include a short statement about these effects. If you want lower levels at your tap, the State Water Board lists registered home treatment devices by contaminant, and warns that many devices certified for one form of arsenic barely reduce the other.

Lead: what your report must tell you

Lead in tap water comes mainly from service lines (the pipe from the street main to a building) and home plumbing. It is measured at taps inside homes. The report gives the 90th percentile, the number of sites above the action level and the range.

Reports must now say that the system has a service line inventory and how to see it. Inventories sort lines into lead, galvanized requiring replacement, lead status unknown and non-lead. In the State Water Board's statewide data as checked in October 2026, covering 4,022 of 4,309 water systems, there were no lead service lines, about 12,500 galvanized lines needing replacement and about 695,000 lines of unknown material, out of about 10.1 million.

In Fresno: The City's Water Service Lines page says field verification found no lead service lines. Customers whose private-side line was listed as "unknown" received a notice; questions go to (559) 621-5361.

The federal rule's lead statement advises flushing your pipes for several minutes before drinking by running the tap, showering, or doing laundry or dishes, and using a filter certified to reduce lead. The version required from November 1, 2027, adds: use only cold water for drinking, cooking and baby formula. Boiling does not remove lead. A low citywide result does not rule out lead at your own tap, so ask your system about testing.

What changes in 2027

These dates reflect federal and California rules as of October 2026.

In California, the State Water Board is adopting matching lead rules through an emergency rulemaking, with an anticipated effective date of November 1, 2027. The state's hexavalent chromium limit of 10 µg/L had a compliance date of October 1, 2026, for systems with 10,000 or more connections; smaller systems have until October 1, 2027, or October 1, 2028.

PFAS ("forever chemicals"): Federal limits of 4.0 ppt for PFOA and PFOS must be met by April 26, 2029. In May 2026, EPA proposed letting systems request until April 26, 2031, and proposed withdrawing limits for PFHxS, PFNA, GenX chemicals and a PFAS mixture. These are proposals, not final rules; Proposed, final or in effect? explains how to check.

Who to ask, and what to ask

• Your water system: "Which wells or sources serve my address?" "Can you test lead at my tap?" "What is my service line made of?" "Can I get the report in another language or large print?"
• Your clinician: if you are pregnant, care for an infant, or have a weakened immune system (for example from chemotherapy, an organ transplant or HIV), as every report advises. Ask whether to use tap water for formula, and whether a blood lead test makes sense.
• The State Water Board's Division of Drinking Water, Fresno office, (559) 447-3300, about public water systems in the area, or EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline, 1-800-426-4791.
• Fresno County Environmental Health, (559) 600-3357, about private wells and very small systems.

You can also speak up. The City of Fresno's report invites the public to City Council meetings at City Hall, 2600 Fresno Street, usually Thursdays at 9 a.m. For the policy questions behind standards and enforcement, see Drinking-water governance and health.

Correction, October 26, 2026: Updated the California service line counts to the State Water Board's current statewide data (about 695,000 lines of unknown material, rather than the earlier figure of about 588,000), and clarified that the federal lead statement's cold-water advice belongs to the version required from November 1, 2027.

Sources

1. 40 CFR Part 141, Subpart O: Consumer Confidence Reports — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulation, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, up to date as of October 20, 2026.
2. National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Consumer Confidence Reports, 89 FR 45980 — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, May 24, 2024.
3. Consumer Confidence Report Rule Revisions — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, last updated November 21, 2025.
4. Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, last updated September 9, 2026.
5. Find Your Local CCR — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed October 21, 2026.
6. CCR Information for Consumers — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, last updated November 21, 2025.
7. How to Read Drinking Water Quality Reports — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, May 1, 2024.
8. Private Drinking Water Wells — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, last updated August 25, 2026.
9. 40 CFR 141.2, Definitions and 40 CFR 141.202, Tier 1 Public Notice — Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, up to date as of October 20, 2026.
10. 40 CFR Part 141, Subpart I: Control of Lead and Copper — Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, up to date as of October 20, 2026.
11. Lead and Copper Rule Improvements — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, last updated December 29, 2025.
12. Consumer Confidence Report — California State Water Resources Control Board, last updated October 13, 2026.
13. Consumer Confidence Report Reference Manual for Water Suppliers — California State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Drinking Water, updated January 2026.
14. Public Health Goals (PHGs) — California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, accessed October 21, 2026.
15. Drinking Water Notification Levels and Response Levels — California State Water Resources Control Board, last updated August 31, 2026.
16. Public Drinking Water Watch — California State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Drinking Water, accessed October 21, 2026.
17. Statewide Service Line Inventory Data — California State Water Resources Control Board, last updated September 21, 2026 (inventory summary checked October 26, 2026).
18. California Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (SWRCB-DDW-26-001E) — California State Water Resources Control Board, last updated October 6, 2026.
19. 2026 SAFER Drinking Water Needs Assessment and fact sheet — California State Water Resources Control Board, 2026.
20. About SAFER — California State Water Resources Control Board, accessed October 21, 2026.
21. SAFER Dashboard and SAFER Maps and Data — California State Water Resources Control Board, last updated August 27, 2025, and April 23, 2025.
22. Residential Water Treatment Devices — California State Water Resources Control Board, last updated June 27, 2025.
23. Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program — California State Water Resources Control Board, last updated August 20, 2026.
24. AB 2454 Private Domestic Well Testing — California State Water Resources Control Board, last updated June 30, 2026.
25. Water Quality and Testing and 2025 Annual Water Quality Report — City of Fresno Department of Public Utilities, report dated June 2026.
26. Water Service Lines — City of Fresno Department of Public Utilities, accessed October 21, 2026.
27. Water Surveillance Program and Environmental Health — Fresno County Department of Public Health, accessed October 21, 2026.
28. Methemoglobinemia — MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine, reviewed May 1, 2026.
29. Extending the Compliance Deadline for the PFOA and PFOS Maximum Contaminant Levels and Rescission of Regulatory Determinations for Four PFAS Substances — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, proposed rules, Federal Register, May 20, 2026.
30. When to Call Emergency Medical Services (EMS) — American Academy of Pediatrics, HealthyChildren.org, accessed October 26, 2026.