Public Water System Supervision Program/Arkansas Department of Health: Calendar Year 2025 Annual Report Released

The Arkansas Department of Health (“ADH”) has released an annual report titled:

Public Water System Supervision Program - Calendar Year 2025 (“Annual Report”).

The ADH’s Engineering Branch compiles the Annual Report.

The ADH has primacy for the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (“SDWA”) for the State of Arkansas.

The SDWA was originally enacted by Congress in 1974 to protect public health by regulating the Nation’s public drinking water supply. The statute authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency to set national health-based standards for drinking water to protect against both naturally occurring and man-made contaminants that may be found in drinking water.

A key component of the SDWA is the National Drinking Water Regulations.  These are legally enforceable primary standards and treatment techniques that apply to public water systems. Primary standards and treatment techniques are intended to protect public health by limiting the levels of contaminants in drinking water. Public water systems are required to periodically sample their drinking water to determine compliance with the relevant requirements.

EPA and primacy agencies such as the ADH monitor public water system compliance with the SDWA and its implementing regulations by reviewing and evaluating analytical results of water samples collected and reported by public water systems. These reports provide the public water systems and regulators with the data needed to ensure drinking water monitoring is ongoing and drinking water standards are being met.

The ADH Engineering Branch publication, Arkansas Drinking Water Update (Summer 2026), notes that its Annual Report contains:

• Detailed information concerning the violations that Arkansas public water systems have incurred.
• Overall statistics highlighting compliance with SDWA requirements for public water systems in the State.

Key statistics cited in the Annual Report include:

• Population of Arkansas (2025 U. S. Census Bureau Estimate) - 3,114,791.
• % population served by community public water systems - 99.4%.
• Number of community public water systems – 660.
• Number of transient non-community public water systems – 325.
• Number of non-transient non-community public water systems – 28.
• Compliance percentage – 99.3%.
• SDWA water quality compliance – 98.5%.
• Overall SDWA compliance – 97.9%.

The 79 page Annual Report addresses a variety of topics such as:

• SUMMARY OF VIOLATIONS
• DEVIATION FROM FEDERAL DATABASE
• VARIOUS VIOLATIONS TABLES
• CONSUMER NOTIFICATION
• VARIANCES AND EXEMPTIONS
• ENFROCEMENT DEFINITIONS
• SUMMARY OF ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
• COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE EFFORTS
• VARIOUS APPENDICES SUPPLYING THE DATA/INFORMATION

A copy of the Annual Report can be found here.