Environmental Profile for : Okaloosa
County, Florida
Drinking Water
Congress enacted the Safe
Drinking Water Act in 1974 to ensure that every water supplier provides drinking water
that meets minimum health-based safety standards, which are set by EPA. EPA has set
health-based limits for over 80
contaminants that may be found in drinking water. These contaminants include metals
(e.g., lead), fertilizers
(e.g., nitrates/nitrites),
pesticides (such as atrazine),
and micro-organisms (such as coliforms).
The charts listed below summarize violations of EPA standards for Community
Water Systems (CWS), systems providing drinking water to more than 25 people year-round,
located in this area. Community Water Systems often provide drinking water to consumers in
multiple counties. Therefore, the population served by these Water Systems does not
necessarily correspond with the population residing in this county.
Population Served by CWS in Violation
The first figure displays
the estimated population served by a Community Water System that had
one or more health-based violations of EPA standards during a given
fiscal year.
Source: Safe Drinking Water Information System
Data Tables
Note: Some of the data values in this figure may be too small,
relative to other values, to be visible on the graph. Please examine the figure's data tables for the
numeric values. EPA encourages you to examine the About the Data page for more
information on source data for this profile: the USEPA Safe Drinking Water Information
System (SDWIS).
Community Water Systems in Violation
The second figure displays the number
of Community Water Systems with one or more health-based violations in
a given fiscal year.
[Source: Safe Drinking Water Information System Data Tables]
Note: The number of systems in violation does not necessarily correspond with
the number of people served by systems in violation because systems may serve populations
of different sizes. For example, a system with one violation that serves 100,000 people
affects more people than five systems in violation that each serve 5,000 people. Some of
the data values in this figure may be too small, relative to other values, to be visible
on the graph. Please examine the figure's data tables for the
numeric values. EPA encourages you to examine the About the Data page for more
information on source data for this profile: the Safe Drinking Water Information System
(SDWIS).
Tips on Interpreting this Figure
1) EPA health-based standards include Maximum Contaminant
Levels (MCLs) (the highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water) and
Treatment Techniques (TTs) (a required process intended to reduce the level of a
contaminant in drinking water). Not all health-based violations indicate an immediate
cause for concern, since most contaminants are only a concern if ingested at levels higher
than the MCL over a lifetime.
2) The population and violation figures for these graphs may
not be entirely accurate as there may be additional water systems that serve your county
and are not listed here. States are not required to report to EPA which county a
particular water system serves, although most states do report this information (see About
the Data for more information). Water systems may also slightly overstate their individual
population estimates as some customers may be counted by multiple systems (e.g. a person
gets water from one system at home and another at work and both systems count that person
as a customer).x
3) These figures do not represent the level of exposure to or risk from a
specific drinking water contaminant. Drinking water contaminants can result in a variety
of health effects, depending on the amount of the contaminant(s) ingested, the duration of
ingestion, the contaminant's toxicity, and the age and general health of person exposed.
Please refer to EPA's Contaminant Specific
Fact Sheets - Consumer Version for more information about the health effects of a
specific contaminant.
4) Drinking water quality will vary system by system and can vary throughout the
distribution of one water system. These figures reflect water quality as the water leaves
the treatment facility (or in the case of lead or copper, at certain household taps) for
community water systems.
5) Finally, these figures present information only for the 55,000 Community
Water Systems which provide water for 247 million Americans. Community Water Systems are
defined as: systems providing drinking water year-round to 25 or more people or 15 or more
connections. For individuals who do not receive water from a community water systems
(approximately 23 million), please refer to EPA's Water On Tap for more information...
6) EPA encourages you to examine the About the Data section to
learn more about drinking water data.
Other Sources of Information:
Violation information for every water system regulated by EPA is available
through EPA's Envirofacts web site. You may go directly to Envirofacts to see detailed
system level data on water systems which were used to prepare this profile and to
determine if your system has had any violations. In addition to the contaminant level
violations displayed in these figures, the Envirofacts site displays monitoring and
reporting violations as well as information on non-community water systems which are not
reflected in these figures. If your water system is not listed here, then go to the SDWIS query page in
Envirofacts and you can locate your water system by selecting your state and searching for
the water system by name or by population served.
EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking
Water maintains the Safe Drinking
Water Information System (SDWIS), a database that compiles contaminant and monitoring
violations for all drinking water systems under federal regulation.
The Safe Drinking Water Hotline (1-800-426-4791) can provide additional
information on EPA activities and the Safe Drinking Water Act, help locate your state
water quality agency, help find a certified lab in your state to test drinking water, and
help interpret your test results.
For more information, examine this search from the Digital
Library of Environmental Quality.
For more complete information on your drinking water quality, please contact
your drinking water provider.
POSTED AUGUST 17 1999
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