Lead and Copper Public Education - Community

This page provides information and templates for community water systems conducting lead and copper public education after identifying an exceedance, including:

Community Lead Action Level Exceedance (ALE)

Tier 1 24-hour notification

An exceedance of the action level for lead requires Tier 1 public notification within 24 hours.

The Minnesota Department of Health will notify the water system if there is an action level exceedance as a result of compliance monitoring. A lead action level exceedance (ALE) occurs when the 90th percentile concentration of lead is greater than 15 parts per billion (ppb) or 0.015 mg/L.

Upon MDH notice of Lead Action Level exceedance the following documents will be provided to the water system to aid in meeting the 24 Tier 1 public notice requirements.

Please provide MDH a copy of the public notice for approval prior to delivering notices to customers.

The documents below apply to community water system only.

• Lead ALE Instructions (PDF)
• Lead ALE Public Notice Template (Word)
• Lead ALE Tier 1: 24 Hour-Delivery of Public Notice (PN) Certification Form (PDF)

Tier 1 notification is required to be issued as soon as practical, but no later than 24 hours after the community water system learns of the exceedance. If your system has received an email from MDH regarding a Tier 1 public notice requirement, please use the notification document templates included in that email.

If you have questions about the situation your system is facing, please contact your MDH district engineer (PDF) or email MDH at health.community.leadandcopper@state.mn.us.

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60-day public education

After completing the initial 24-hour notification, systems are required to provide further community education to customers within 60 days of the initial notification of exceedance.

Please use the documents below to fulfill the 60-day public education requirement.

• Water Bill Language Template (Word)
• Local Public Health Agency Contact Instructions and Informational Notice Template (Word)
• Press Release Template (Word)
• Website Template (Word)
• Public Service Announcement (PSA) Template (Word)
• General Public Education Notice Template (Word)
• Lead Public Education Program Delivery Certification - Packet A Template (Word)

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Six-month follow-up

For ongoing exceedance issues, systems are required to provide further community education.

Please use the documents below to fulfill the six-month public education requirement.

• Press Release Template (Word)
• Water Bill Language Template (Word)
• Website Template (Word)
• Public Service Announcement (PSA) Template (Word)
• Lead Public Education Program Delivery Certification - Packet B Template (Word)

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Copper public education templates

For issues related to copper exceedances, please refer to the letter from MDH for instructions.

• Important Information about Copper in Your Drinking Water (Word)
• Drinking Water Notice: Important Information about Copper in Your Drinking Water (Word)
• Copper Public Education Program Delivery Certification (Word)