Your monitoring summary outlines your water system’s monitoring requirements. Please use this as a planning tool to help your public water system (PWS) remain in compliance with the State of Alaska Drinking Water Regulations, 18 AAC 80. Monitoring your drinking water for contaminants is very important so that your customers do not become sick. Please review your system's monitoring summary.
Have questions about your monitoring summary or sampling requirements? Contact your local Environmental Program Specialist (EPS).
To learn more about how to read your monitoring summary, visit Navigating the Monitoring Summary.
Reminders for 2025
Seasonal Start-Up Procedures
Seasonal systems that do not maintain pressure year-round are required to complete the Start-Up Procedures form prior to serving water to the public. The form must be submitted or postmarked to the Drinking Water Program within 10 days of opening to the public. Seasonal systems are encouraged to take a Total Coliform sample prior to start-up particularly if your system experienced a longer shut down. Be sure to review the compliance schedule section of the monitoring summary to see when your start-up procedure is due. If there are any changes to your operating dates in 2025, contact your EPS as soon as possible to update the deadlines. The RTCR Information webpage on the Drinking Water Program website contains additional information and forms.
Sanitary Surveys
Sanitary surveys are required as part of the Safe Drinking Water Act. In order to stay in compliance, systems must complete surveys on time and correct any deficiencies. Please review the monitoring summary to confirm when the next survey is due and what deficiencies remain unaddressed. Significant Deficiencies that need to be fixed according to the DW Program’s records are listed under the Compliance Schedules section. Remember to send documentation of how and when deficiencies have been fixed to the Drinking Water Program. If you would like to schedule a survey with the DW Program please contact the DW Program’s Sanitary Survey Section staff at DEC.sanitarysurveys@alaska.gov.
PWS owners/operators are encouraged to request a question set from the Drinking Water Program prior to a sanitary survey inspection. This provides an opportunity to review the system and fix any potential deficiencies before the inspection takes place. For more information on Sanitary Surveys, please see our Sanitary Survey webpage.
Cyber Security
Cyber-attacks against water systems are becoming more common. Now is a good time to learn about and implement cybersecurity practices that can help your utility prevent, detect, respond, and recover from cyber incidents. Be sure to review the DW Program's PWS Cybersecurity webpage for information and helpful tools like the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool.
General Compliance Reminders
Violations are issued if a PWS fails to collect required samples, submit required reports, or resolve sanitary survey deficiencies within the appropriate timeframes. When violations are not addressed in a timely manner, this can lead to increased enforcement actions and your system may be listed on the EPA’s national Enforcement Targeting Tool (ETT). Below are some tips for staying in compliance with the regulations and avoiding violations:
- Submit the required samples according to the enclosed monitoring summary. Please use the monitoring summary as a planning tool for the year. Samples can be costly, however if you spread them out over the year, these costs can be more manageable.
- Take samples at the beginning of the monitoring period (i.e., submit nitrate samples early in the season). This helps ensure samples are not forgotten and allows time to resample if necessary.
- Seasonal systems on quarterly TCR monitoring:
- Those who fail to submit samples in a timely manner and according to the approved RTCR Sample Siting Plan, could be placed on monthly monitoring.
- As a reminder, in the event you have TC Present (TC+) sample, you are required to collect 3 additional routine TC sample the month following the TC+ sample. Ensure that you’re prepared to collect these samples by having extra sample bottles on hand.
- Collect your Total Coliform bacteria samples in the appropriate month(s) or quarter(s) as described in your approved RTCR Sample Siting Plan.
- If you are required to conduct daily operator testing, please use and submit the proper Monthly Operator Report form for your system. Your operator report must be filled out, signed, and sent to the Drinking Water Program before the 10th of the following month. (For example, the January operator report should be sent to the Drinking Water Program by the 10th of February.)
- Most samples must be between 0.0°C and 6.0°C when they arrive at the laboratory. Otherwise, samples cannot be accepted and will need to be collected again. Ensure samples are sent/brought to the laboratory in a cooler with ice, so the samples are cool but not frozen.
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