EPA SDWIS ~155K water systems EPA + UCMR5

CARBON, TOTAL

Compiled by PlainWater Editorial, Drinking Water Quality Editorial Team · May 15, 2026

EPA SDWIS quarterly extract data for this analyte. Detection counts and health-based violation counts reflect the most recent federal release.

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EPA contaminant code: 2920

Total Violations

38,231

Systems Affected

1,521

Health-Based %

64.3%

Most Affected State

What this means

CARBON, TOTAL appears in EPA SDWIS with 38,231 recorded violations across 1,521 public water systems. Of those, 64.3% are classified as health-based, meaning the reading exceeded a federally enforceable Maximum Contaminant Level or a treatment-technique requirement rather than a monitoring or reporting lapse. Health-based violations are the subset that trigger formal corrective action and public notification, so the share is a useful signal of real-world exposure risk rather than paperwork drift. State-level concentration data is not consistently reported for this contaminant, so regional interpretation should lean on the system table below rather than state aggregates. Utilities listed below are ranked by cumulative violation count, so a higher rank reflects persistence in the record rather than a single spike; readers comparing systems should consider population served alongside violation count to gauge how many households were actually exposed.

Violation Type Split

CARBON, TOTAL violations broken down by EPA classification.

Health-based (64.3%) Monitoring/Reporting (35.7%)

Health-based violations indicate the contaminant exceeded an EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) or treatment-technique requirement; monitoring/reporting violations are procedural.

Most Affected Water Systems

System	State	Violations	Population
Barnsdall	OK	555	1,243
Weleetka Public Works Authority	OK	434	998
Stroud Utilities Authority	OK	405	2,811
Otoe-Missouria Tribe	OK	388	250
Eufaula PWA	OK	365	2,766
Talihina PWA	OK	351	950
Pittsburg Co. Water Authority	OK	335	5
Sardis Lake Water Authority	OK	307	307
Fairfax	OK	305	1,555
Severy, City Of	KS	289	200
Atoka Co. RWS & Swmd #4	OK	278	3,000
Frederick	OK	273	3,940
Okmulgee	OK	252	13,495
Henryetta	OK	239	6,096
Cimarron Water System	NM	238	1,260
Snyder Public Works Authority	OK	238	1,509
McAlester PWA	OK	238	18,206
Coweta PWA	OK	220	9,450
Mannford	OK	214	3,935
Wewoka Public Works Authority	OK	210	3,450
Beggs	OK	210	1,364
Delaware	OK	204	456
Delaware Co RWD # 3	OK	192	653
Otoe-Missouria Tribe	OK	191	250
Wetumka	OK	175	1,451
Altus	OK	168	18,717
Pittsburg Co. PWA (Crowder)	OK	166	2,203
Alakanuk Water System	AK	165	570
Mitchell Co RWD 2	KS	165	873
Kiowa	OK	165	731

Drinking Water Guides

Understanding Water Quality Data

What EPA SDWIS tracks, how violations are classified, and what MCLs mean.

PFAS in Drinking Water

What forever chemicals are, EPA testing results, and 2024 standards.

Is My Water Safe?

How to assess your local water quality and when to take precautions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CARBON, TOTAL in drinking water? ▼

CARBON, TOTAL is a contaminant tracked by the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act. It has caused 38,231 violations across 1,521 public water systems nationwide. 64.3% of these violations are health-based, meaning the contaminant exceeded Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) or treatment technique requirements.

How many water systems have CARBON, TOTAL violations? ▼

1,521 public water systems across the United States have at least one CARBON, TOTAL violation recorded in the EPA SDWIS database.

Are CARBON, TOTAL violations dangerous? ▼

64.3% of CARBON, TOTAL violations are health-based, meaning the contaminant level exceeded safe limits set by the EPA. Health-based violations require corrective action by the water system. Not all violations indicate immediate health risk, but they signal that water quality standards were not met.

Which state has the most CARBON, TOTAL violations? ▼

State-level breakdown data is not available for this contaminant.

Where does this contaminant data come from? ▼

All violation data comes from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), which tracks compliance for all public water systems regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. SDWIS records violations including Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) exceedances, treatment technique failures, and monitoring/reporting issues.

Data Sources

Contaminant violation data from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS). Violations are categorized as health-based (Maximum Contaminant Level exceedances, treatment technique failures) or monitoring/reporting violations.

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Data sourced from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 PFAS monitoring data. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainWater Editorial

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS). Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Every figure on PlainWater is rendered directly from EPA SDWIS drinking-water data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on EPA SDWIS data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.