How to read your water quality report (CCR)

Every utility publishes its CCR (also called a water quality report) on its own website, usually once a year. If you don't already have a link, the direct reports for our service area are listed in the sources below — Tampa, Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, St. Petersburg, Pasco County Regional, both Hernando County systems, and Brooksville.

Skip past the fine print and look for these terms — they explain everything else on the page (EPA, CCR Required Information Summary; 40 CFR Part 141 Subpart O).

• MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level): the enforceable legal limit for a contaminant. Set as close to the health-based goal as current treatment technology and cost allow.
• MCLG (Maximum Contaminant Level Goal): the health-based goal itself — not enforceable, and sometimes set at zero even when a small, regulated amount is unavoidable.
• MRDL / MRDLG: the same relationship, but for the disinfectant (chlorine or chloramine) instead of a contaminant.
• Action Level (AL): used specifically for lead and copper — the concentration that triggers required action, since there's no safe floor to police as a hard limit.

Hardness is an aesthetic measurement under EPA's own classification, not a regulated health contaminant — so Florida CCRs routinely leave it out. Hillsborough County, Pasco County, Hernando County, and Brooksville all skip it in their current reports.

The same goes for how chloramine or chlorine actually tastes at your tap. A fully compliant CCR tells you the disinfectant is within its legal range — it doesn't tell you whether you'll notice it in a glass of water. That's why we test both in your home.

City of Tampa's 2025 CCR lists a chlorine/chloramine running annual average of 3.6 ppm against an MRDL of 4.0 ppm. In plain English: the city's disinfectant level is under its legal limit, all year. It says nothing about whether your specific tap will taste or smell like chloramine — that depends on your plumbing, your household's water use, and whether Tampa is in one of its temporary switches to free chlorine.

If a line item in your own CCR doesn't make sense, bring it to your free water test. We'll walk through it with you and measure what the report doesn't cover.