By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Kentucky’s 2025 Drinking Water Compliance Report shows public water systems across the state produce high-quality drinking water for the public and have a high rate of compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requirements.
This annual report, required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), summarizes compliance data and monitoring results for Kentucky’s public water systems.
“Kentucky’s public water systems continue to demonstrate a strong commitment to providing safe, reliable drinking water to communities across the Commonwealth,” said Kentucky Division of Water (DOW) Director Sarah Marshall. “The high rate of compliance reflected in this report is a testament to the hard work of water system operators, local utilities and community leaders, who work every day to protect public health and maintain confidence in Kentucky’s drinking water. Kentuckians can rest assured knowing their tap water remains safe and closely monitored by the Division of Water to ensure it meets drinking water standards.”
SDWA rules require water systems to routinely test for bacterial and chemical contaminants and report them to DOW. A water system will receive a violation if it does not complete required testing, incorrectly reports testing, fails to submit results on time, doesn’t provide proper treatment or exceeds established limits for these contaminants.
In 2025, 249 violations were issued to 62 different public water systems across the state. Of the violations, 190 were “monitoring/reporting” violations and were administrative in nature. These violations do not directly pose a risk to public health, and water systems can often resolve them quickly by completing the necessary monitoring or submitting required documents to DOW.
The remaining 59 violations were “health-based” violations and include maximum contaminant level (MCL) violations as well as treatment technique violations that may pose a risk to the consumer. In 2025, only 36 water systems (9% of total active systems) across the state were issued one or more health-based violations. Health-based violations require public notification to customers within either 24 hours or 30 days, depending on the level of risk to customers.
Complete data for the Kentucky Annual Drinking Water Compliance Report is available here.