Consumer Notifications for Public Water Systems
Public water systems must notify customers about contamination, violations of drinking water standards, and lead related matters. This webpage offers editable public notice templates to use consistent with state and federal regulations.
Notification Process
According to right-to-know provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, public water systems must:
- Notify customers about a violation or potential contamination situation.
- Within the timeframe required
- Using the appropriate mandatory language
- Using appropriate delivery requirements
- Notify TCEQ that you’ve sent the customers notification.
- Within 10 days of when you issue a notice, submit a copy of the actual notice and a signed Certificate of Delivery of Public Notice to Customers (form TCEQ-20208) to PWSPN@tceq.texas.gov
- If the violation continues, repeat the customer notice and the TCEQ notification once every three months.
For assistance filling out your public notices please contact the Right-to-Know program at 512-239-1069.
Public Notices
You can find public notice templates below for each violation category, with instructions for the required language for each violation, and step-by-step instructions for completing a public notice. Use these templates to complete and deliver notices to your customers. Additional templates are available on TCEQ's Public Notice language webpage.
If your violation requires a Boil Water Notice, see the Boil Water Notice section.
Maximum Contaminant or Residual Disinfectant Level (MCL/MRDL)
Templates and instructions in this section are intended for drinking water violations that are a result of contaminant level exceedances.
- General MCL Template Instruction
- General MCL Template
- Most Common and Acute Violation Templates:
- Acute and Non-acute Chemical Violations – How-to Webpages:
Treatment Technique Violations (TT)
Templates and instructions in this section are intended for drinking water violations that are a result of treatment technique failures.
- TT Template Instruction - coming soon
- TT Template – coming soon
- Lead TT Template Instruction
- Lead-TT Template
Monitoring and Reporting Noncompliance
Templates and instructions in this section are intended for drinking water violations that are a result of failure to comply with monitoring and reporting requirements (Tier 3 public notice).
Boil Water Notices
This section contains boil water notice (BWN) templates for different types of situations. Use these templates to complete and deliver notice to your customers. See our Boil Water Notice webpage for more information.
Types of BWNs
- E. Coli MCL – notice if there is an E. Coli MCL violation.
- E. Coli MCL Template - coming soon
- Turbidity Exceedance – provide if there is an acute turbidity exceedance violation.
- Turbidity Template- coming soon
- Precautionary – provide due to low distribution, disinfectant residual, water outages, or other situations where there is potential drinking water contamination.
- Precautionary Template - coming soon
Lead Related Notices
Lead and Copper regulations require public water systems to provide notice to customers about water service line categorizations, tap sampling results, and in the event of a lead action level exceedance. Use templates to complete and deliver notices to your customers.
Lead Consumer Notice
The lead consumer notice (LCN) must be delivered or posted within 30 days of receiving lead and copper tap sample results.
- LCN Community Water System Template - English
- LCN Community Water System Template - Spanish
- LCN Non-transient Non-community - English
- LCN Non-transient Non-community - Spanish
Service Line Inventory Public Notice
Service Line Inventory (SLI) Public Notice is required annually for customers that have a water service line that has been identified as lead, galvanized – and requiring replacement, or unknown.