How to Write a Tier 1 Public Notice

A Tier 1 public notice is a 24-hour write-and-deliver job. 40 CFR 141.202 says you provide the notice as soon as practical, but no later than 24 hours after the system learns of the violation or situation, and you start a consultation with the primacy agency on the same clock. The notice has to reach all persons served, not just the people who pay the water bill.

This page is how to write that notice, pick a delivery method that counts, and certify it. The clock itself (which events are Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3, and how many hours or days you have) lives on a different page: SDWA public notice tiers, deadlines. A nitrate MCL has its own write-up: nitrate violation public notice. Confirm the template and the extra methods with your primacy agency. This isn't legal advice.

What 141.202 actually requires you to do in 24 hours

Three things start the hour you learn of a Tier 1 event. Learning usually means the lab call, the posted result, or the inspector's notice, not the day the clerk files it.

• Write and deliver the notice in a form and manner reasonably calculated to reach all persons served: residential, transient, and non-transient users.
• Initiate consultation with the primacy agency as soon as practical, and no later than 24 hours, so the state can add repeat notices, posting duration, extra methods, or extra content.
• Do what that consultation requires. 141.202(b)(3) lets the state set timing, form, manner, frequency, and content of repeat notices, and other actions designed to reach everyone who drinks the water.

Put three timestamps on one line: the hour you learned, the hour you first reached the primacy contact, and the hour the first qualifying delivery went out. If you cannot reach a person, leave a dated voicemail and an email with the PWSID, then keep trying. Wyoming systems consult EPA Region 8. The District of Columbia consults the EPA region with primacy. Tribal systems consult the EPA region that has primacy for that system.

The ten content elements the notice has to carry

141.202 is the Tier 1 delivery rule. The content list sits in 40 CFR 141.205 and applies to every public notice, including Tier 1. Use the state's template. Do not rewrite the mandatory health-effects sentence. Each notice must include:

• A description of the violation or situation, including the contaminant or requirement and, when it applies, the level found.
• When it occurred (collection date, result date, or the date the situation began).
• Potential adverse health effects, using the standard language in 141.205(d)(1) or (d)(2). That language is not optional wording.
• The population at risk, including groups that are more vulnerable if exposed.
• Whether people should use an alternate water supply.
• What consumers should do, including when to seek medical help if that is known.
• What the system is doing to correct the problem.
• When the system expects to return to compliance or resolve the situation. A real date or next step, not "soon."
• A name, business address, and phone number for more information.
• The standard "please share this notice" sentence in 141.205(d)(3), so renters, schools, and businesses pass it on.

141.205(c) also controls the look of the page: conspicuous, not tiny type, not so technical that nobody can use it, and no sentence that talks the reader out of taking it seriously. If the primacy agency has determined that you serve a large share of people with limited English proficiency, you also owe 141.205(c)(2): the importance of the notice in the appropriate language, plus a way to get a translation or help. Put the system name and the PWSID at the top. If you need the identifier, use PWSID lookup.

Who must receive it

All persons served. That is a wider list than "customers on the billing file."

• Community systems. Residents, including tenants who never see a water bill. Consecutive buyers still owe their own customers. See consecutive and purchased-water obligations.
• Non-transient non-community systems. Employees, students, and regular occupants. A school or factory cannot notify only the board.
• Transient systems. Guests and same-day users. Post at the taps people actually use.

A billing-list email, by itself, misses renters and visitors. A social post, by itself, is not a federal delivery method. If the situation continues, 40 CFR 141.206 also requires community systems to give the most recent notice to new billing units when service begins. That later duty does not replace the 24-hour notice.

Delivery methods that count under 141.202(c)

You must use, at a minimum, one or more of these four forms, chosen so they actually reach the people who drink the water:

• Appropriate broadcast media (radio and television that cover the service area). A press release you never confirmed went to air is not broadcast.
• Posting in conspicuous locations throughout the area served. Front doors of every building the system serves, the well house that nobody visits, and a town hall bulletin board that closes at 4 p.m. are not the same thing. Post where people already go.
• Hand delivery to persons served. Door hangers and in-person drop-off count when they reach the occupant, not only the landlord.
• Another method the primacy agency has approved in writing. Text, email, reverse-911, or a website banner counts when the state said so in writing for this event or as a standing method. Ask during the 24-hour consultation if you want to use one of those as your minimum method.

The minimum is one qualifying method. The standard is reach. If you serve houses plus a campground plus a school, one radio read may still leave the campground uninformed. Add a post at those taps. If the state tells you to do a second method, that instruction is part of 141.202(b)(3). Keep a same-day log: method, time, where it went, who sent it, and a copy of the script or flyer. You will need it for the certification.

How you certify to the state

40 CFR 141.31(d) is the closeout. Within 10 days of completing the public-notification requirements for the initial notice, and again for any repeat notice, submit to the primacy agency:

• A certification that the system fully complied with Subpart Q (content, delivery, and deadline).
• A representative copy of each type of notice you distributed, published, posted, or made available to persons served and to the media. A radio script and a door hanger are two types. Send both.

Use the state's certification form if it has one. If it does not, a signed statement with the PWSID, the violation or situation, the date you learned, the consultation date, each delivery method and date, and a line that the ten elements were included is the usual packet. For a lead action level exceedance, 141.31(d)(2) also requires a copy of the Tier 1 notice to the Administrator and the head of the primacy agency no later than 24 hours after you learn of the exceedance, in addition to the later 10-day certification.

Keep the notice, the certification, and the delivery log for three years under 40 CFR 141.33. See water system record retention. Keep the primacy contact current before you need them after hours: how to keep your primacy contact current.

The hour you learn of a Tier 1 event

• Write the learn time. Count 24 hours.
• Call the primacy contact. Ask which extra methods they want and whether they have a template for this contaminant.
• Fill the state template. Do not invent health-effects language. Put the PWSID on the first line.
• Deliver by a 141.202(c) method, plus anything the state just required. Log it.
• If people should not drink the water, say so in plain words, then say what to use instead.
• Calendar the 10-day certification the same hour.

FAQ

Can I email the billing list and call that the Tier 1 notice?

Only if the primacy agency approved that method in writing and it actually reaches all persons served. A billing-list email misses tenants and visitors. Pair it with a qualifying 141.202(c) method unless the state said the email is that method.

Is a website post enough?

Not by itself, unless the state approved it in writing. A website post is a useful extra. It is not one of the three named federal methods (broadcast, posting in the service area, hand delivery).

What if I cannot reach the primacy contact inside 24 hours?

Send the notice anyway, on time, by a qualifying method. Keep trying the state and document every attempt. A missed consultation is a problem. A missed 24-hour notice is a worse one.

Does the Consumer Confidence Report replace this notice?

No. The CCR is an annual report. Tier 1 is a 24-hour notice. A later mention in the CCR does not satisfy 141.202. See how to deliver and certify your CCR.

Check my system at /find-my-system.

Orevant provides compliance information tools. This page isn't legal advice. Confirm the Tier 1 template, the delivery methods, and the certification with your primacy agency.