How to Read Your 2026 Water Quality Report in 10 Minutes

The Hydroviv team spends a lot of time breaking down water quality data as part of our process of building filters that are optimized for each customer’s water, so we wanted to put together a guide that lets you do the same.

While these reports, officially known as Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs), can be confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking at, the analyses are performed by accredited laboratories, and it would cost thousands of dollars for you to get same tests on your water. The goal of this guide is to help you maximize the value of the test results found in the CCR, add clarity to the regulatory jargon, and give you a better way to understand your water report, in about ten minutes. 

What is Covered by the Consumer Confidence Report? 

The CCR gives a survey of water quality and is required by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).  The SDWA requires water providers to report detections for roughly 90 regulated contaminants, plus reporting for additional contaminants that aren’t regulated. Given how many chemicals are actively used in commerce, including more than 42,000 listed on EPA’s TSCA Inventory, a lot of the people we talk to are surprised at how short the required testing list is. The reality is, regulating a new contaminant can take decades. 

What is an MCLG? 

EPA sets the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) based on public-health risk, without considering treatment cost or technical feasibility. The MCLG is the level where there are no known or expected health effects caused by the contaminant, with a margin of safety built in.  We recommend paying close attention to contaminants with an MCLG of zero, because (by definition) EPA has not identified a safe nonzero dose for those contaminants.  The MCLG is a public health goal, not an enforceable regulatory limit that water providers must meet. 

What is an MCL? 

The Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) is the legal limit that EPA establishes using three criteria: health effects, cost, and system-scale measurement & treatment feasibility. EPA sets each MCL as close to the MCLG as the cost and available technology constraints allow.  For some contaminants they’re the same, but for all. 

One example of a contaminant where the MCL and MCLG are different is PFOA, a PFAS compound that is a known carcinogen.  Under EPA’s PFAS rule, the health-only MCLG for PFOA is zero, while the enforceable MCL is 4 parts per trillion (ppt). This means that a utility reporting 3 ppt of PFOA would be below the legal limit, but still above the health-only goal. 

What is the Action Level for Lead? 

Lead is treated differently than most contaminants in the CCR, because it contaminates water after it leaves the treatment plant, by leaching from service lines and household plumbing. That means a legal limit measured at the plant (the way MCLs work) can't capture what you can expect at your faucet. The Lead and Copper Rule takes a different approach: utilities collect samples from taps in higher-risk homes around the system, and compliance is set on the 90th percentile of those results. That 90th percentile concentration is compared to the Action Level (AL), which is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in 2027 under the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements. 

Two things we always remind people when they're looking at lead results: 

• The AL was not determined from toxicology studies. It functions as a process-control trigger that tells the utility when its corrosion-control program needs attention. EPA’s health-only MCLG for lead is zero. 
• The systemwide result is not necessarily representative of what you can expect in your home’s water. Whether your water has lead depends on your own service line (the underground pipe connecting your home to the water main) and your home's plumbing, so your house could test high while your neighbor's tests at zero. The only way to know is to order a first draw lead test for your home. 

How to Read Your CCR in About 10 Minutes 

A CCR can be a long and confusing document, but you don’t need to read most of it to understand the data tables.  This is how to quickly break down the CCR. 

1. Do a quick scan to see if any contaminants exceeded the MCL. If a contaminant exceeds the legal limit, you should pay close attention to it. 
2. Focus next on contaminants with an MCLG of zero. These are chemicals where EPA has not identified a safe nonzero dose. Examples include arsenic, PFOA, and PFOS. Any level detected and reported for these contaminants is worth understanding 
3. Lead and Copper Rule Results, which are often found in a separate table. If you live in an older building or don't know if your service line or plumbing components contain lead, these results gives you an idea of the levels that others are seeing in their home. 
4. Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) Results. These results will generally be found separately from the main data. It's important to understand that it's not possible for a UCMR contaminant to create an MCL violation, because there is no MCL yet. 

What to Do With What You Find 

The contaminants that surface during steps 1-4 are a good place to start when deciding on next steps. If anything concerns you, the logical next step is to either order a water test to confirm the results, or choose a filter certified for the contaminants that you found. When selecting a water filter product, make sure the product carries NSF/ANSI certifications for the specific contaminants you care about. Certifications are contaminant-specific, and a filter that performs well against one contaminant may not perform against another. 

If you have any questions about your water quality data or get stuck reading your CCR, reach out via live chat and one of our experts will be happy to walk you through it.