Today's Consumer Confidence Report duty is still the annual report: deliver by July 1, then certify that delivery to the primacy agency. That job has not moved. What changes on January 1, 2027 is the Revised CCR Rule. Electronic delivery has to land on a direct URL to the report. The report has to carry PFAS and lead service line inventory status lines. Community systems serving 10,000 or more people go to a twice-a-year report.

This page is that 2027 change. What a CCR is lives here: What is a CCR. How you deliver and certify today's report lives here: How to deliver and certify your CCR. Do not treat those pages as the 2027 rule, and do not treat this page as a rewrite of July 1. Confirm the 2027 template and calendar with your primacy agency. This isn't legal advice.

What does not change before January 1, 2027

Community water systems still produce and deliver a CCR. Transient systems and most non-transient non-community systems stay on a different public-information path. Size does not remove the federal obligation. A system serving 200 people still delivers. How you deliver can differ. The duty does not.

July 1 is still a delivery date, not a writing date. Missing it is a reporting violation under 40 CFR Part 141 Subpart O, not an MCL. Certification is still a separate filing. Many primacy agencies still want it within about three months of delivery. Ask yours. Put the PWSID on the form. If you need the number, use PWSID lookup.

A CCR is still not a public notice. You can owe both in the same year. Putting a violation in the annual report does not satisfy a Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 clock. See SDWA public notice tiers.

Electronic delivery means a direct URL, not a homepage

The revised rule lets community systems send the CCR by mail or by an electronic method. If you deliver electronically, the link has to open the current report. A homepage, a "water quality" landing page, or a reports index that takes two more clicks is not a direct URL. The customer should land on this report in one click.

That reading is already the right way to do electronic delivery today. It becomes the rule you are held to for reports prepared under the January 1, 2027 compliance date. If you use electronic delivery you also have to provide a paper copy to any customer who asks for one. Keep the URL in the certification packet, and keep a dated screenshot of the live report on each delivery date. If that URL 404s in August, you have a delivery problem, even if the file lived on your server in June.

Renters and other people who never see a bill still need a path to the report. Subpart O expects a good-faith effort to reach them. The revised rule adds examples (a postcard with the direct link, an opt-in email or text, a post on a channel people already use). What counts is still state-specific. Document each step with a date.

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Required PFAS and lead service line inventory status lines

The 2027 report is not last year's template with a new cover. Two status lines operators keep skipping in drafts are now part of the federal content set. Use the state's wording. Do not invent a health-effects sentence.

  • PFAS. The report has to tell customers the PFAS status that applies to your system: what you monitored, what you detected, and the compliance language the state template requires for those results. If you are still reading a lab packet, start with how to read a PFAS lab report. Do not paste a wholesale seller's table and call it yours. Consecutive systems report what they owe for the water they serve. See consecutive and purchased-water obligations.
  • Lead service line inventory status. The report has to tell customers whether the inventory exists, how they can see it, and the current status of lead, galvanized requiring replacement, non-lead, and unknown lines. That line is a pointer to the inventory, not a substitute for the inventory filing. The first-filing job lives on LCRI lead service line inventory: what to file and when and lead service line inventory requirements.

The revised rule also wants a short summary at the front of the report (who to call, and when it applies, a plain statement of violations or notices inside), plus clearer lead language when you have an action-level exceedance or corrosion control to explain. Confirm the exact 2027 template with the primacy agency. States will issue their own forms. Do not copy a neighbor system's PDF and assume the lines match.

Systems serving 10,000 or more: twice a year

Under the revised rule, community water systems serving 10,000 or more people deliver the CCR twice per calendar year. The first report is still due by July 1 and covers the previous calendar year. The second report lands later in the same year. EPA's comparison sheet names a year-end second delivery. Confirm the exact 2027 second date, and what that second packet has to add, with your primacy agency. Do not invent a third federal date.

If the system had a violation, a lead action-level exceedance, or new unregulated-contaminant results that were not in the July report, the second delivery is not a reprint of July. It carries the mid-year update the state template requires. If nothing in that set changed, the state may still want the second delivery. Ask. Systems serving fewer than 10,000 people stay on the annual July 1 report, with the new content lines.

Systems that sell water to another community system have to pass the data those buyers need in time for both of the buyer's reports. Confirm both dates with the state. Certification still happens after each required delivery. The revised rule shortens that window. Today's "about three months" habit is not the 2027 habit. Confirm the 2027 certification form and date with the primacy agency.

What to do with the 2026 report, and what to stage for 2027

  • Finish the current July 1 delivery and the current certification on the state's present clock. That work is this year.
  • Ask the state which 2027 template it will issue, and whether it wants a test URL before the first 2027 delivery.
  • If you already post a homepage link, turn it into a direct URL now. Do not wait for January 2027 to discover the landing page does not count.
  • If you serve 10,000 or more, pick the second delivery window the state will accept and decide who writes the mid-year update.
  • Draft the PFAS line from your actual results, and the inventory-status line from the file you already keep. If the inventory is stale, that is a different job: keep the file current, then report the status.
  • Wyoming, the District of Columbia, and tribal systems confirm the 2027 calendar with the EPA region with primacy. States vary.

FAQ

Does a system serving 8,000 people have to deliver twice in 2027?

No. The twice-a-year duty in the revised federal rule is for community systems serving 10,000 or more. Smaller community systems stay on the annual July 1 report. They still pick up the direct-URL rule for electronic delivery and the new PFAS and inventory status lines. Confirm any tighter state rule with the primacy agency.

Can I keep using last year's homepage link for electronic delivery?

Not if customers have to click through to find the current report. A direct URL opens this year's CCR. Test it from a phone that is not on the office network. Keep a paper-copy path for anyone who asks.

Does the 2027 rule replace the July 1, 2026 report?

No. The compliance date is January 1, 2027. The report you deliver by July 1 this year is still today's Subpart O duty. Do not skip a 2026 certification because you are redesigning a 2027 template.

Check my system at /find-my-system.

Orevant provides compliance information tools. This page isn't legal advice. Confirm the January 1, 2027 content, the direct-URL method, and the twice-a-year calendar with your primacy agency.