This article identifies some of the most common reasons that documentation for feature W05.1 - Assess and Maintain Drinking Water Quality - is marked as pending in preliminary documentation review (WELL Certification) or round 1 (WELL at scale) reviews. This guidance does not include all possible reasons for a pending status, but provides information and context based on common review issues.
Conduct testing before performance verification
This feature requires pre-testing at least one month before on-site performance verification occurs. Be sure that your documentation shows that your testing was conducted prior to on-site verification and that you do not use the results from the final on-site testing. Your documentation must clearly indicate the dates when you conducted pre-testing.
Include testing results for all required parameters
A common mistake made when submitting documentation for this feature part is leaving out one or more of the parameters. Double check that you have included all of the required parameters before submitting your documentation. This feature requires the project team to provide testing results for all of the following parameters:
- Turbidity
- Coliforms
- pH
- Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
- Total Chlorine
- Residual (free) chlorine
- Arsenic
- Lead
- Copper
- Nitrate
- Benzene
Include all required sampling locations
Water samples must be taken at the following locations:
- The water dispenser that is closest to the pipe that delivers water into the project, before any point-of-entry water treatment system where possible.
- For projects with more than two floors or more than 10,000 ft2 in area (930 m2), a second drinking water dispenser on the highest floor to which the project has access that is farthest from the location in requirement b(1).
- For projects of 12 or more floors, one additional drinking water dispenser for every 10 floors.
- Sampling points for on-going monitoring must meet the requirements listed in the Water section of the Performance Verification Guidebook (page 14 in the Q3 2025 edition). See the annual reporting template for examples and additional information.
Missing any of the required sampling locations could prevent your project from successfully achieving this feature part. Be sure that your documentation clearly indicates that testing was conducted at all of the required sampling points listed above.
Your documentation must also demonstrate that any point-of-use filters or other treatment devices at the testing locations were removed or bypassed prior to testing. If no filters or treatment devices are present, state in your documentation that none are used in your project.
Meet annual testing requirements following certification
When you submit for initial certification, you will not have annual testing results. However, to qualify for recertification, you must conduct testing at least quarterly after your initial certification. You must upload those results annually. Be sure to include your testing schedule and document the frequency with which you conducted testing. Clearly indicate when the results were collected in the documents you upload annually. Use the annual reporting template as a guide.