Mineral or dissolved constituent

Sodium in water reports

Sodium is a dissolved constituent with separate federal special-monitoring and reporting requirements. The reviewed current primary table does not set an EPA primary MCL for sodium.

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Federal regulationSource review:

This is a report-reading explainer. It is not a live advisory, household result, violation decision, or personal health assessment.

Report example:
1 entry from Silver City's 2025 report illustrates this term.
Type of report term:
Mineral or dissolved constituent
Report-period evidence:
An annual-report row is evidence for the named report and source period, not a live monitoring result.
Current instructions:
Current status and instructions must come from the water provider, NMED, or another appropriate official source.

Meaning and report use

What the term means

Sodium is a dissolved ion that can contribute to total dissolved solids. Its individual report row does not identify all dissolved material or establish TDS.

Why it may appear in a report

Silver City chose to include sodium in its customer-interest table. Federal rules separately require certain community-system sodium monitoring and reporting to government health officials, but do not require this value to appear in every CCR.

How it may be labeled

Other names you may see
Sodium
Label in Silver City's report
Sodium

Measurement context

How to read the unit and measure

Values remain attached to the labels, units, and table context printed by the official report.

Silver City prints Sodium in PPM. This page does not convert that value, add an advisory threshold, or turn the report row into dietary guidance.

Units used in reviewed sources

  • PPM as printed by the report
  • mg/L in some official monitoring records

Standards and reporting context

How this term fits the official framework

Primary standards, secondary standards, special monitoring, and customer-interest reporting are not interchangeable.

Special-monitoring context

40 CFR 141.41 contains special sodium monitoring and reporting requirements. EPA's 2003 Regulatory Determination 1 found no national primary drinking-water regulation action appropriate or necessary for sodium. It should not be described simply as having no federal context.

2025 report example

Silver City's 2025 report: Sodium

The values below use the report's original labels and units. They have not been converted or used to make a compliance finding.

Official report rowReport source retrieved:

Sodium

The Town of Silver City lists this value in the table titled “Substances of Frequent Interest to Customers.” The table does not give a testing year or regulatory criterion for this entry.

Public water system
Silver City Water System
Report
2025 Water Quality Report
Reported measurement
Average: 24
Range in report
Range: 22 - 26
Unit
PPM
Testing period in table
Not printed in table
Regulatory criterion in row
Not printed in row
Status in row
Not printed in row
Source table
Substances of Frequent Interest to Customers
Source page
4

The customer-interest table does not print a sample year or regulatory limit for this row.

Open the exact row in the Silver City report summary

Interpretation boundaries

What the row does not establish

These limits apply even when a result is printed clearly in an annual report.

What to verify next

  1. Keep the report's PPM unit and source period attached to the value.
  2. Use 40 CFR 141.41 for the federal special-monitoring context.
  3. Ask the provider or appropriate health official about current official information, not this annual row.

Related report terms

Explore related report terms

These terms describe related water properties or measurements. Each page explains its own result from Silver City's report.

Water chemistry characteristic

Alkalinity

Alkalinity describes water's capacity to neutralize acids and bases and resist rapid pH change. It is a water property, not a contaminant identity or the same thing as pH.

Mineral or dissolved constituent

Calcium

Calcium is a dissolved mineral constituent that can contribute to hardness and total dissolved solids. Its individual report row is not the same as either aggregate measure.

Water chemistry characteristic

Hardness

Hardness is an aggregate water characteristic driven mainly by dissolved calcium and magnesium. It can affect soap performance and mineral scale without being a primary contaminant standard.

Official sources

Sources reviewed for this explainer

Every source records its publisher, retrieval and review date, version note, and the claims it supports.

Evidence

Official source path

Use official federal, state, utility, or report sources before treating a page as final.

Continue reading

Related interpretation paths

Use the separate directory, contaminant library, report-reading guide, and methodology according to the question you are trying to answer.

Contaminants directory

Use the separate contaminant library for primary standards, action levels, disinfectants, monitoring topics, and treatment measures.

View Contaminants directory

Data methodology

See how source records, annual-report evidence, limitations, and current-status boundaries are handled.

View Data methodology