How to Request Your State Monitoring Schedule

The official monitoring schedule is a primacy-agency document. It names what you sample, where, how often, and by when. A public SDWIS view, an ECHO Detailed Facility Report, and a memory of last year's bottles are not that document.

This page is how to ask for the current schedule and how to read what comes back. It is not the federal IOC MCL list, and it is not a generic calendar of every rule. Confirm the schedule you are on with the state. This isn't legal advice.

Why the public views are not the schedule

States upload inventory, violations, and some enforcement to federal SDWIS on a quarterly cycle. EPA's public sites trail that upload. A clean public page can sit three to six months behind a letter the state already sent. Some state Drinking Water Watch pages show a monitoring summary. Even those pages can lag, and they often omit site IDs, reduced-monitoring conditions, and the exact due date the inspector will use.

If you plan the month from a public extract, you will miss a special sample, a returned-to-monthly coliform, or a waiver that expired. Read the federal file for history: How to read your SDWIS violation record. Ask the state for the schedule you are actually on.

Who to ask, and what to put in the request

Write the drinking water staff who already know your system: the district inspector, the compliance officer, or the monitoring-schedule desk. If you do not have a name, use the primacy agency's public drinking water contact and ask to be routed. Put this in the email or the portal form:

• System name and PWSID. If you need the number, use PWSID lookup.
• A direct ask: "Please send the current official monitoring schedule for this PWSID, including contaminant groups, sample sites, frequency, and due dates for the current compliance period."
• The calendar year or compliance period you want, if the state issues annual PDFs.
• Your name, role (owner, clerk, operator of record), phone, and the email that should receive the file. If that contact is stale at the state, update it before you ask.

Some states post the schedule in an operator portal once you are granted access. Ask for a login if that is how they issue it. A screenshot of last year's portal is not this year's schedule. Wyoming systems ask EPA Region 8. Tribal systems ask the EPA region with primacy.

Do not ask a neighboring operator to forward "what they have for systems like ours." Consecutive buyers and sellers do not share one schedule. Consecutive buyers and sellers do not share one schedule.

What a usable schedule contains

Formats differ. A one-page table is enough if it is complete. When you open the file, check for:

• Contaminant groups. Total coliform / RTCR, nitrate and nitrite, IOCs, SOCs, VOCs, radionuclides, DBPs (TTHM and HAA5), lead and copper tap samples, asbestos if it applies, and any state-only group. PFAS initial monitoring, if you are in that window, should appear or should be named in a separate letter. See PFAS compliance deadlines.
• Sample sites. Well IDs, entry points, distribution sites, DBP sites, lead and copper tap addresses. If the schedule says "distribution" with no site ID, ask which site on your siting plan they mean.
• Frequency. Monthly, quarterly, annual, once per three-year period, once per nine-year period, or reduced. Reduced is a state decision, not a habit. See a written waiver request if you think you qualify and the schedule still shows full frequency.
• Due dates or sampling windows. The month, quarter, or last-day-to-collect. If the file lists only "annual," ask which month they want. Annual-in-any-month is how systems collect in December and miss the lab's hold.
• Special conditions. Increased coliform after a trigger, triggered source sampling language, a waiver expiration date, a requirement that is paused pending treatment, or a note that a new source is not yet on the schedule.

The federal IOC framework (who samples every three years vs every year, and the MCL list) is explained here: Inorganic contaminants, the IOC MCL list, and the monitoring framework. That page is the rule. Your state's schedule is the assignment.

When you get the file

• Confirm the PWSID in the header. A correct-looking table on the wrong identifier is waste.
• Map each line onto a calendar the operator actually uses. Put each line on the operator calendar the same week.
• Match coliform sites to the written siting plan. Frequency is a different page: RTCR total coliform sampling frequency.
• Call the lab with the next two windows before the first one opens. Holding times and bottle kits are the lab's job. The due date is yours.
• If a group you thought you were waived from is back on the page, treat it as required until the state says otherwise in writing.
• If a group you know you owe is missing (a new well, a treatment change, PFAS initial monitoring), write back and ask. Silence on the PDF is not a waiver.

Keep the schedule, the request email, and the state's reply together. When the inspector asks "what schedule are you on," that packet is the answer. Public views are a check, not the file. Public views are a check, not the file.

The schedule changes. Ask again when it should.

Ask for a fresh copy when any of these happen:

• A new source, a source taken offline, or a consecutive connection added or dropped.
• A treatment change (new chlorination, a switch to chloramine, new filtration, corrosion control).
• A Level 1 or Level 2 assessment, an E. coli MCL, or a return to monthly coliform.
• A waiver granted, denied, or expired.
• A population jump that changes RTCR sample count or DBP site count.
• The start of a new nine-year compliance cycle, or a state letter that says "your schedule has been revised."

Do not wait for ECHO or Drinking Water Watch to catch up. Those sites will show the violation if you sample the old plan. They will not warn you first.

FAQ

Can't I just read the schedule off Drinking Water Watch or ECHO?

No. Those are public extracts of inventory and compliance history. They lag, and they rarely carry site-level due dates. The official schedule is the primacy agency's document for your PWSID. Ask for it.

How often should I request a new copy?

At least once each calendar year, and any time the system or the treatment changes. If the state issues an annual PDF, file the new one the week it lands and retire the old one so no one samples from last year's month.

The schedule I have is three years old and we have not had a violation. Is it still good?

Maybe. Reduced IOC or SOC monitoring can run years. It can also expire, or be revoked, without a violation on the public page yet. Send the old file back and ask, "Is this still the official schedule for this PWSID?" Get the answer in writing.

Who can request it?

The owner, the administrative contact, or the operator of record. Some states will not release a schedule to an unsigned contractor. If you are a contract operator, have the owner make the request or be copied. Put the PWSID on every message.

Check my system at /find-my-system.

Orevant provides compliance information tools. This page isn't legal advice. Confirm the official schedule, the sites, and the due dates with your primacy agency.