Office of Drinking Water Quality

MONITORING Public Water Supplies

Community Monitoring Requirements

Community Public Water Systems can expect the following approximate sampling costs :

• Initial monitoring: Total and Fecal Coliform, Nitrate, Inorganics, Metals, complete IOC (including sodium, cyanide), VOC* and radiological - $700.00
• Quarterly after system begins operations: VOC, Total and Fecal Coliform, SOC - $1050.00 **
• Annually for 2 periods after initial year of operations: Quarterly Total and Fecal Coliform, VOC, Nitrates- $350.00
• 3 rd annual/1 st Triennial monitoring: Quarterly Total and Fecal Coliform, VOC, SOC’s not waived, IOC, metals, cyanide, Fluoride, Nickel and nitrate/nitrites - $600.00

Other costs/requirements associated with the Public Water System license are:

• License Fee: $1.10 per service connection. Minimum of $250.00
• Lead & Copper monitoring: 2 initial six-month rounds at a cost of approximately $150.00/round depending on population. If action levels are met, system moves to annual monitoring for 3 consecutive years then to triennial monitoring ($150.00/monitoring period depending on population). Initial monitoring results equal to or below .005 and .65 mg/l for lead and copper respectively allow the system to proceed directly to triennial monitoring.
• Certified Operator: System must be under the supervision of at minimum a licensed distribution operator who has been certified to the appropriate grade by the Rhode Island Drinking Water Operator Certification Board. Please note the presence of treatment above and beyond a cartridge filter will require that the system be under the supervision of a licensed treatment operator as well.

*may be used to meet VOC Quarterly testing requirements as long as entire sampling covers four (4) consecutive quarters.

**actual 1 st quarter cost. Waivers for SOC monitoring may reduce 2 nd, 3 rd and 4 th quarter costs by as much as $800.00.

Monitoring Required for Community Water Systems: