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Electronic Annual Report

The electronic Annual Report (eAR) is a survey of public water systems, currently required annually, to collect critical water system information intended to assess the status of compliance with specific regulatory requirements such as source water capacity, provides updated contact and inventory information (such as population and number of service connections), and provides information that is used to assess the financial capacity of water systems, among other information reported. The areas for which information is required to be reported is listed in the Log-in & Reporting Information section.

The State Water Board has issued the following technical orders to all public water systems:

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Water System Reporters - Where to Access the Report

Our electronic Annual Reporting (eAR) System is the method used to collect the critical water system information that must be reported to the State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Drinking Water annually. Approved users must go to the eAR Portal to complete and submit the water system's eAR.

eAR Portal Login

Information Collected

Section Number/Name Section Description
Section 1. Introduction Provides water system information (e.g., System Number, Name, Classification, Ownership, assigned Regulating Agency) and physical location; Reporter starting EAR contact information; Disadvantaged (DAC) status request or recertification for reduced annual fees
Section 2. Contacts Maintain name, title, address, phone and email for various point of contact types
Section 3. Population Update population and annual operating period
Section 4. Connections Update service connection counts by types and metering status; Urban Water Supplier (UWS) outdoor irrigation connections or indoor submeters
Section 5. Sources Large Water System (LWS) source counts or Small Water System (SWS) source list by type (SWS and NC); Standby Source activity; Interties; Source Metering and Levels Monitoring
Section 6. Water Supplied and Delivered This section has been removed from the eAR and was relocated into the SAFER Clearinghouse. Water Supplied and Delivered data is still required under the Technical Reporting Order. For questions about this section, please email: Clearinghouse-Reporting@waterboards.ca.gov

Note: If you do not have a SAFER Clearinghouse account, you will need to create one.
Section 7. Recycled Water Recycled Water (RW) number of use sites, RW Coordinator name; Pressure tests, and on-site supervision status
Section 8a. Customer Charges Residential and non-residential customer charges, rate structures, and other service fees borne by customers to support the water system.
Section 8b. Income Annual revenues and incurred expenses. This information is used to assess the financial resiliency of water systems.
Section 8c. Water Affordability Information, if any, on customer assistance programs designed to address customer affordability challenges.
Section 9. Water Quality Bacteriological Sample Siting Plan (BSSP) status; Emergency Notification Plan (ENP) status; Emergency Disinfection Plan (EDP) status; Watershed Sanitary Survey Report status; and Consumer Confidence Report status
Section 10. Backflow Status of testing and surveying backflow prevention assemblies; Cross Connection Control Program Coordinator name
Section 11. Operator Certification Distribution System (DS) Operator compliance; Treatment Plant (TP) Operator compliance; subsections including grid of operators with their certification number and expiration date.
Section 12. Improvements Improvements and modifications to treatment or distribution system completed in reporting year or future.
Section 13. Complaints Summary of complaints reported by customers, investigated by Water System, and reported to DDW or LPAs; Complaint Descriptions by Type
Section 14. Treatment Lists of groundwater and surface water treatment plants, excluding chlorination only, treatment process, date of operations plan, and contaminant removed; grouped chlorinating only treatment plant operations plan compliance; Emergency Disinfection Plan and Watershed Sanitary Survey status.
Section 15. Distribution Summaries of system problems; infrastructure and pipeline materials; dead-end flushing; flushing volumes; valve exercise program; storage tanks or reservoir inspection and cleaning program status.
Section 16. Emergency Auxiliary Power Supply; Ability to meet continuous power supply and funding gaps or schedule; Emergency Response Plans (ERP); interest in water partnerships or consolidation.
Section 17. Conservation (Updated) Drought Preparedness or Water Shortage Contingency Plan; Water Shortage Reporting; Urban Water Supplier (UWS) Conservation Program information; Potable reuse incentive.
Section 18. Climate Change Climate Threats, Sensitivity, and Magnitude of Impacts; Adaptation Measures
Acknowledge and Finalize Reporter(s) eAR error report; Report Disclosure; Number of Hours; Reporter submittingeAR contact information.

The State Water Board offers assistance for public water systems to assist them with completion of the eAR. This assistance is provided by the Water Board's Division of Financial Assistance Technical Assistance Program.

Deadline to apply for Technical Assistance is March 1, 2025.

Eligible Water Systems:

  • Community Water Systems
  • Nontransient Noncommunity Water Systems (Non-Profit Only)

Prioritized Water Systems:

  • Community Water Systems Serving less than10,000 people
  • Disadvantaged Community Water Systems (Has a median household income less than 80% of the statewide median household income)

History of the Annual Report

The "Annual Report to the Drinking Water Program" was started in the mid-1980's as a hard copy report submitted to the Division of Drinking Water (DDW) district offices. The DDW field staff and local primacy agencies (LPAs) require the annual report per Section 116530 Health & Safety Code and have used this information in the conduct of sanitary surveys of public water systems. In 2009, the Annual Report moved online where it was dubbed the electronic Annual Report (eAR). There was a Large Water System and Small Water System survey, based on system size at the cutoff of 1,000 service connections or 3,300 population. The next 11 years, eARs were developed for release to public water systems and field office staff tasked for review. In 2020, the Water Board redeveloped the eAR onto a new reporting platform offering advancements in customization and performance.

eAR Stakeholders

In addition to the Division of Drinking Water field staff and County LPA representatives, the eAR serves as a platform for information gathering from public water systems to the Water Board.

Drivers of eAR data collection:

Users of eAR data:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Legal Authorities to Require electronic Annual Reporting Include but Are Not Limited To:

California Health and Safety Code, Section 116530:
(a) A public water system shall submit a technical report to the state board as part of the permit application or when otherwise required by the state board. This report may include, but not be limited to, detailed plans and specifications, water quality information, physical descriptions of the existing or proposed system, information related to technical, managerial, and financial capacity and sustainability, and information related to achieving the goals of Section 106.3 of the Water Code, including affordability and accessibility.
(b) A public water system shall submit the report in the form and format and at intervals specified by the State Board.

California Health and Safety Code, Section 116355:
(b)(9) An analysis of the current cost of drinking water paid by residential, business, and industrial consumers based on a statewide survey of large, medium, and small public water systems.

California Health and Safety Code, Section 116885:
(a) By July 1, 2018, a community water system shall compile an inventory of known lead user service lines in use in its distribution system and identify areas that may have lead user service lines in use in its distribution system.
(b) By July 1, 2020, a community water system that has identified known lead user service lines in use in its distribution system as provided in subdivision (a) shall provide a timeline for replacement of known lead user service lines in use in its distribution system to the state board.

California Health and Safety Code, Section 116918:
An urban and community water system shall report the number of annual discontinuations of residential service for inability to pay on the urban and community water system's Internet Web site, if an Internet Web site exists, and to the board. The board shall post on its Internet Web site the information reported.

Water Code, Section 10609.61:
A small water supplier and a nontransient noncommunity water system that is a school shall each report annually water supply condition information to the state board through the state board's Electronic Annual Reporting (eAR) System or other reporting tool, as directed by the state board.

Self-Guided Resources

Regulator Assistance

To assist water systems in completing the eAR, water systems are encouraged to reach out to your DDW District or County Local Primacy Agency (LPA). Contact information for the DDW Districts and LPAs are provided below:

Annually, the DDW publishes the eAR data beginning with reporting year (RY) 2013 data to the current reporting period collected from public water systems with a survey status marked as complete.

The eAR data is available to download below. The text files are organized by reporting year and section. Note that some sections (i.e. section 8) are too large to be directly loaded into an Excel file, other programming languages such as R and Python can be used to import the file.

Supplemental reference material:

  • Water System Inventory
    • This open data webpage provides list of all active public drinking water systems in California as of last update date listed.
    • The data source is from the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS)
  • Data Dictionary (Excel)

NOTICE TO USERS OF THE DATABASE: Users of this database should use care in interpreting these data. Data that does not meet DDW data quality objectives is included and the provided data may not be representative of current inventory and operating status of the public water system. Data that DDW considers Personally Identifiable Information (PII) per California Consumer Privacy Act is not included. User inquiries about survey question answers are often best addressed by the specific public water system, or by the associated DDW district or County LPA field offices.

For eAR related questions, please contact us directly at DDW-EAR@waterboards.ca.gov

What is the Input Forum?

The eAR Input Forum was created in 2018 and it is a virtual meeting held twice a year by the State Water Resources Control Board – Division of Drinking Water. The purpose of the meetings are to provide information regarding upcoming changes to the eAR, review past years' eARs, provide the Technical Reporting Order updates, reporting year statistics and uses and gather feedback on proposed changes for external stakeholders. Our external stakeholders include public water system representatives (data reporters), water utility associations and organizations, nongovernmental organizations representing water systems and consumers and entities representing data users including other state agencies.

Meeting dates are listed in the Important Dates & Events section of this webpage.

  eAR Email Distribution List

  Important Dates & Events

  • eAR Release Date:
    February 1, 2025
  • eAR Reporting Deadline:
    April 1, 2025
  • Technical Assistance Deadline:
    March 1, 2025
  • Office Hours #2 Q&A (Section #8)
  • Office Hours #3 Q&A (All Sections, except #8)

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