Community Water System · PWSID PA4070023

Altoona Water Authority

Serves 62,500 peopleSurface WaterOwner: Local GovernmentAltoona, Pennsylvania
Nothing open right now.

On record since 2004: 85 violations. 1 over the limit · 3 treatment lapses · 72 missed or late tests · 9 notices or reports. Most recent began 2025-09-23.

For this year's test results, ask the utility for its annual Consumer Confidence Report. Every community system must publish one.

1Over the limit
3Treatment lapse
72Missed or late test
9Notice or report

More violations on record than 94% of active water systems in Pennsylvania. Small systems with no staff chemist often rack up missed-test violations; big utilities rarely do.

The record, year by year

2004 · Notice or report: 12005 · Missed or late test: 12005 · Notice or report: 12005201020152016 · Treatment lapse: 12016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352016 · Missed or late test: 352017 · Missed or late test: 52017 · Missed or late test: 52018 · Missed or late test: 52018 · Missed or late test: 52018 · Notice or report: 22019 · Missed or late test: 112019 · Missed or late test: 112019 · Missed or late test: 112019 · Missed or late test: 112019 · Notice or report: 220202022 · Over the limit: 12022 · Missed or late test: 52022 · Missed or late test: 52023 · Missed or late test: 32024 · Missed or late test: 12025 · Treatment lapse: 22025 · Missed or late test: 62025 · Missed or late test: 62025 · Notice or report: 32025
One square ≈ 3 violations (rounded up), by the year they began. Empty columns are years with nothing on EPA's record.
1% over the limit · 14% treatment lapse · 385% missed or late test · 7211% notice or report · 9

Across Pennsylvania, 71% of violations are missed or late tests and 2% are water over a limit.

Lead & copper at the tap

Utilities sample taps in homes most likely to have lead pipes, and report the 90th-percentile result: 9 in 10 homes sampled came in at or below this number. Above the red line (the action level) the utility must act. The action level is not a safe level; EPA's health goal for lead is zero. EPA's file does not date these results, so they are shown highest first.

Lead, 90th percentile 4 results on file · action level 15 ppb

2.9 ppb
1.6 ppb
0.59 ppb
0 ppb

Every violation on record

  1. 2025-09-23Public Notice ×2PN Violation for NPDWR ViolationBack in compliance
  2. 2025-08-13Revised Total Coliform RuleRPTBack in compliance
  3. 2025-08-13Revised Total Coliform Rule ×2TTBack in compliance
  4. 2025-01-01Carbon, TotalMonitoring and Reporting (DBP)Period ended · no return to compliance on file
  5. 2025-01-01Bromate ×5Monitoring and Reporting (DBP)Period ended · no return to compliance on file
  6. 2024-01-01Carbon, TotalMonitoring and Reporting (DBP)Back in compliance
  7. 2023-10-01Carbon, TotalMonitoring and Reporting (DBP)Back in compliance
  8. 2023-10-01Total Haloacetic Acids (HAA5)Monitoring and Reporting (DBP)Back in compliance
  9. 2023-09-01Revised Total Coliform RuleMONBack in compliance
  10. 2022-10-01Thallium, TotalMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  11. 2022-07-01Carbon, TotalMonitoring and Reporting (DBP)Back in compliance
  12. 2022-07-01Thallium, TotalMonitoring, Check/Repeat/ConfirmationBack in compliance
  13. 2022-07-01Thallium, TotalMCL, Single Samplemeasured 0.006000 MG/LPeriod ended · no return to compliance on file
  14. 2022-07-01Trihalomethanes (TTHM)Monitoring and Reporting (DBP)Back in compliance
  15. 2022-07-01Total Haloacetic Acids (HAA5)Monitoring and Reporting (DBP)Back in compliance
  16. 2019-10-01Bromate ×5Monitoring and Reporting (DBP)Back in compliance
  17. 2019-02-01Revised Total Coliform RuleRPTBack in compliance
  18. 2019-01-01NitriteMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  19. 2019-01-01NitrateMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  20. 2019-01-01ArsenicMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  21. 2019-01-01Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate ×2Monitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  22. 2019-01-01Revised Total Coliform RuleRPTBack in compliance
  23. 2019-01-01Surface water filtration (IESWTR)Monitoring, Turbidity (Enhanced SWTR)Back in compliance
  24. 2018-12-01Revised Total Coliform RuleRPTBack in compliance
  25. 2018-11-01Revised Total Coliform RuleRPTBack in compliance
Show the other 48 entries
  1. 2018-10-01Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate ×2Monitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  2. 2018-06-01Surface water treatment (SWTR)Monitoring of Treatment (SWTR-Filter)Back in compliance
  3. 2018-04-01ChlorineMonitoring and Reporting (DBP)Back in compliance
  4. 2018-02-01Surface water filtration (IESWTR)Monitoring, Turbidity (Enhanced SWTR)Back in compliance
  5. 2017-01-01ChlordaneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  6. 2017-01-01Total Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB)Monitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  7. 2017-01-01ToxapheneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  8. 2017-01-01Ethylene DibromideMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  9. 2017-01-011, 2-Dibromo-3-ChloropropaneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  10. 2016-10-01Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalateMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  11. 2016-05-01Surface water treatment (SWTR)Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR)Back in compliance
  12. 2016-01-01StyreneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  13. 2016-01-01EthylbenzeneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  14. 2016-01-01TolueneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  15. 2016-01-01BenzeneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  16. 2016-01-01ChlorobenzeneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  17. 2016-01-01TetrachloroethyleneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  18. 2016-01-011,1,2-TrichloroethaneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  19. 2016-01-01TrichloroethyleneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  20. 2016-01-011,2-DichloropropaneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  21. 2016-01-01Carbon tetrachlorideMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  22. 2016-01-011,1,1-TrichloroethaneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  23. 2016-01-011,2-DichloroethaneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  24. 2016-01-01trans-1,2-DichloroethyleneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  25. 2016-01-011,1-DichloroethyleneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  26. 2016-01-01p-DichlorobenzeneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  27. 2016-01-01o-DichlorobenzeneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  28. 2016-01-01DichloromethaneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  29. 2016-01-01Xylenes, TotalMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  30. 2016-01-01cis-1,2-DichloroethyleneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  31. 2016-01-011,2,4-TrichlorobenzeneMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  32. 2016-01-01NitriteMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  33. 2016-01-01NitrateMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  34. 2016-01-01Thallium, TotalMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  35. 2016-01-01Beryllium, TotalMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  36. 2016-01-01Antimony, TotalMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  37. 2016-01-01SeleniumMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  38. 2016-01-01NickelMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  39. 2016-01-01MercuryMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  40. 2016-01-01FluorideMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  41. 2016-01-01CyanideMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  42. 2016-01-01ChromiumMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  43. 2016-01-01CadmiumMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  44. 2016-01-01BariumMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  45. 2016-01-01ArsenicMonitoring, RegularBack in compliance
  46. 2005-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  47. 2005-01-01Lead and Copper RuleFollow-up Or Routine LCR Tap M/RBack in compliance
  48. 2004-10-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Inadequate ReportingBack in compliance

System details

Population served62,500
Service connections23,379
Water sourceSurface Water
System typeCommunity Water System
OwnerLocal Government
StatusActive
CityAltoona
EPA ZIP on file16601

Areas served

  • Blair County

Reading this record

Altoona Water Authority is a community water system that draws from surface water and serves about 62,500 people in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Everything above comes from the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), where states report every violation by every public water system.

Four kinds of violation. Only one is a measurement of the water: over the limit means a test came back above a legal maximum (an MCL). A treatment lapse means a required protective step was not done, such as disinfection, filtration, fixing a defect an inspector found, or filing a lead-pipe inventory. A missed or late test means a required test was skipped or never reported. That is the most common kind, and the most misread: it does not mean the water was bad, and it does not mean the water was fine. Notices and reports covers public notices and the annual Consumer Confidence Report.

Status. “Back in compliance” means the state recorded a return to compliance. “Period ended” means the violation's compliance period is over but no return to compliance was ever filed, which is common in older records. EPA's federal copy lags state records by months, so call the utility for anything current.