Community Water System · PWSID ME0090220

Brewer Water Department

Serves 8,860 peopleSurface WaterOwner: Local GovernmentBrewer, Maine
Nothing open right now.

On record since 2000: 2 violations. 2 treatment lapses. Most recent began 2000-07-01.

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

0Over the limit
2Treatment lapse
0Missed or late test
0Notice or report

More violations on record than 23% of active water systems in Maine. Small systems with no staff chemist often rack up missed-test violations; big utilities rarely do.

The record, year by year

2000 · Treatment lapse: 22000 · Treatment lapse: 2200020052010201520202025
One square = one violation, by the year it began. Empty columns are years with nothing on EPA's record.
100% treatment lapse · 2

Across Maine, 59% of violations are missed or late tests and 3% 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 5 results on file · action level 15 ppb

3.6 ppb
3 ppb
3 ppb
2.1 ppb
1.9 ppb

Every violation on record

  1. 2000-07-01Lead and Copper RuleOCCT/SOWT Treatment Installation/DemonstrationBack in compliance
  2. 2000-01-01Lead and Copper RuleOCCT/SOWT Treatment Installation/DemonstrationBack in compliance

System details

Population served8,860
Service connections3,544
Water sourceSurface Water
System typeCommunity Water System
OwnerLocal Government
StatusActive
CityBrewer
EPA ZIP on file04412

Areas served

  • Penobscot County

Reading this record

Brewer Water Department is a community water system that draws from surface water and serves about 8,860 people in Brewer, Maine. 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.