One of the provisions of the reauthorized 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) required the state develop and implement a capacity development (also called viability assessment) plan to ensure that public water supplies provide safe drinking water to their public at a reasonable cost for the foreseeable future.

Iowa DNR’s Drinking Water Capacity Development program is designed to helping water supply personnel continually develop and improve their ability or “capacity” to serve their customers. There are three main elements of water system capacity, also known as “TMF.”

• Technical: Adequate amounts of water, well maintained infrastructure, current technology, and qualified and knowledgeable staff to operate the system.
• Managerial: An effective organization and governance, accountability, properly certified operators, and good relationships and communications between boards, councils, management and staff.
• Financial: Enough revenue to cover current costs and future needs, fiscal controls, and credit worthiness.

Every three years in September, DNR issues a “Report to the Governor” that describes the capacity development program and activities the accomplishments, challenges, and ongoing activities. This report has been developed for this three-year period, and is available at the Viability Assessment/Capacity Development website.

Under the 1996 reauthorized Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the State of Iowa is required to publish an annual report of the status of its public drinking water program.  The 2017 report is available electronically here.

The report was compiled by the staff of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Water Supply Engineering and Operations Sections, using data collected in 2017 from all active public water supplies in the state.  The report contains a summary of the program, a description of the requirements that systems must meet, the year’s violation statistics, and the list of the systems with each health-based standard or major monitoring or reporting violation incurred during the year. 

The photographs in the report are from Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund projects, primarily those that were completed during the year.  The maps depict the public water supply system universe in Iowa and the locations of the systems that incurred the health-based standards and major monitoring and reporting violations.  The maps are also separately listed on the website.

Iowa had 1,841 active public water supply systems in 2017. Of those systems, 95.8% were in compliance with all health-based drinking water standards, and 80.8% were in compliance with all major monitoring and reporting requirements. There were no waterborne disease outbreaks or deaths attributed to the drinking water at any active public water supply in Iowa during the year.

If you have any questions about the report, please contact Diane Moles.  It is anticipated that the report will be presented to the Environmental Protection Commission at their August or September meeting. 

Provided by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Under the 1996 reauthorized Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the State of Iowa is required to publish an annual report of the status of its drinking water program.  The 2015 report is available electronically at the following Internet address: http://www.iowadnr.gov/WS-Annual-Compliance-Report.

The report was compiled by the staff of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Water Supply Engineering and Operations Sections, using data collected in 2015 from all active public water supplies in the state.  The report contains a summary of the program, a description of the requirements that systems must meet, the year’s violation statistics, and the list of the systems with each health-based standard or major monitoring or reporting violation incurred during the year.  The photographs in the report were from Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund projects that were completed during the year.  The maps depict the public water supply system universe in Iowa and the locations of the systems that incurred the health-based standards and major monitoring and reporting violations.  The maps are also separately listed on the website.

Iowa had 1,878 active public water supply systems in 2015. Of those systems, 94.5% were in compliance with all health-based drinking water standards, and 83.2% were in compliance with all major monitoring and reporting requirements. There were no waterborne disease outbreaks or deaths attributed to the drinking water at any active public water supply in Iowa during the year.