drinking water - water quality monitoring

In Vermont, lead in drinking water at schools and child care facilites falls under several regulations. A school or child care facility that has its own well and water treatment and is a public water system is regulated under the Lead and Copper Rule. A school that gets water from a community water system is not sampled as part of the community water system's LCR compliance testing, which prioritizes residences.

Vermont's public water systems are regulated under the federal Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) and the Vermont Water Supply Rule which refers to it. Visit the Vermont Lead and Copper Rule page for more information about current requirements, or to access forms and templates. Learn about the health impacts from lead pipes in water infrastructure by visiting the Vermont Department of Health page. 

A bottled water system with all sources located outside of Vermont is considered an imported bottled water system and must obtain an Approval to Sell Bottled Water in Vermont prior to the distribution and sale of a bottled water product in the state.

• Practice -Process For Managing Anatoxin, Cylindrospermopsin, and Microcystin Detections in Raw and Finished Water Samples For Public Surface Water Systems
• Vermont Drinking Water Systems Now Sampling for Blue-Green Algae Toxins   (Press Release: July 2015)

Cyanobacteria are photosynthesizing bacteria that may produce cyanotoxins that can cause illness to exposed human and animal populations.   A bloom is a visually identified concentration of cyanobacteria that discolors the water.  Cyanobacterial cells may be found at the water surface, at a defined depth, or present throughout the water column. 

Summer 2024 marks the tenth year of DWGPD's voluntary cyanotoxin monitoring program for public drinking water systems. This program offers no-cost microcystin analysis of raw and finished water for surface water systems across the state, from July to early November. Samples are analyzed by the Vermont Agriculture and Environmental Laboratory (VAEL).

2023 Program

Week One: July 10-11, 2023 Cyanotoxin Monitoring Results

Disinfection Byproducts and Their Regulation

Refer to the Chemical Sampling Frequency Table for monitoring information.