(a) Except as provided in subsection (i) of this section, each community water system shall mail or otherwise directly deliver one copy of the report to each bill paying customer by July 1 of each year. Each new community water system shall deliver its first report by July 1 of the year after its first full calendar year in operation and annually thereafter. In addition, each community water system shall provide a copy of the report to each new customer upon request.     
      (b) In addition to delivering a report to each customer, the system shall make a good-faith effort to reach consumers who do not get water bills, using means recommended by the executive director. An adequate good-faith effort should be tailored to the consumers who are served by the system but are not bill-paying customers, such as renters or workers. A good-faith effort to reach such consumers should include a mix of methods appropriate to the particular system such as: posting the reports on the Internet; mailing to postal patrons in metropolitan areas; advertising the availability of the report in the news media; publication in a local newspaper; posting in public places such as cafeterias or lunchrooms of public buildings; delivery of multiple copies for distribution for single-billed customers such as apartment buildings or large private employers; and delivery to community organizations.     
      (c) Each community water system shall certify to the executive director that the report has been distributed and that the information in the report is correct and consistent with the compliance monitoring data previously submitted to the executive director. This certification and a copy of the report must be mailed to the executive director by July 1 of each year.     
      (d) Each community water system shall deliver the report to any other agency or clearinghouse identified by the executive director no later than the date the system is required to distribute the report to its customers.     
      (e) Each community water system shall make its report available to the public upon request.     
      (f) Each community water system serving 100,000 or more people shall post its current year's report to a publicly accessible site on the Internet.     
      (g) Any system providing water to a community water system shall deliver the applicable information required by §290.272 of this title (relating to the Content of the Report) to the receiving systems by April 1 and shall certify to the executive director that the required information has been delivered. This certification must be delivered to the executive director by May 1 of each year.     
      (h) Any system subject to this subchapter shall retain copies of its consumer confidence reports for no less than five years.     
      (i) The executive director may waive the mailing requirement of subsection (a) of this section for a community water system serving 500 or fewer persons provided that the system provides notice at least once per year by July 1 to its customers by mail, door-to-door delivery, or by posting in an appropriate location that the report is available upon request.     
     Source Note:        The provisions of this §290.274 adopted to be effective August 21, 2000, 25 TexReg 8730; amended to be effective January 6, 2005, 29 TexReg 12212