{
  "type": "water",
  "pwsid": "OH2201511",
  "name": "Vermilion City",
  "county": "Erie",
  "population": 10594,
  "producer": true,
  "source_class": "erie",
  "label": "Lake Erie (Vermilion River intake as secondary/backup)",
  "bodies": [
    "Lake Erie",
    "Vermilion River"
  ],
  "intakes": [
    "Vermilion River",
    "Lake Erie"
  ],
  "wells": 0,
  "aquifer": "",
  "notes": "SDWIS lists both a Vermilion River intake and a Lake Erie intake; kept SDWIS listing of both sources as primary is Lake Erie is the more commonly cited source for the city's main plant, could not fully confirm current split between the two intakes.",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.eriecounty.oh.gov/Downloads/2024VermilionWestWaterQualityReport.pdf"
  ],
  "chain": [
    "OH2201511"
  ],
  "plants": [
    {
      "n": "Vermilion Water Treatment Plant",
      "la": 41.4283,
      "lo": -82.365,
      "pt": "plant",
      "wb": "Lake Erie",
      "src": "Lake Erie (Vermilion River intake as secondary/backup)",
      "cls": "erie",
      "in": [
        {
          "n": "Lake Erie intake",
          "wb": "Lake Erie",
          "role": "primary",
          "src": "Crib/intake structure in Lake Erie off Vermilion that supplies the WTP under normal conditions",
          "la": 41.4283,
          "lo": -82.365,
          "pt": "intake"
        },
        {
          "n": "Vermilion River intake",
          "wb": "Vermilion River",
          "role": "backup",
          "src": "Riverside intake used as a secondary/backup source when needed, per the city's CCR",
          "la": 41.4227,
          "lo": -82.3626,
          "pt": "approximate"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "facts": {
    "hist": [
      [
        "2022",
        "The city held an unconditioned Ohio EPA license to operate. Emergency interconnections with the City of Lorain and Erie County Water were used occasionally during system repairs."
      ],
      [
        "2022",
        "Water and sewer tap fees and capital improvement fees were raised effective June 1; council authorized water rate increases for January 2023 (3%), 2024 (2.5%) and 2025 (2.5%)."
      ],
      [
        "2023",
        "Ordinance 2023-46 set a four-year escalator on sewer rates: the inside-city volumetric charge rises from $7.22 per 100 cubic feet in 2023 to $11.033 in 2024, $16.439 in 2025 and $24.36 in 2026."
      ],
      [
        "2023",
        "Ohio BUILDS Round 5 awarded the city $4,087,906 in July to replace sanitary sewer service laterals and install cleanouts throughout the Vermilion on the Lake neighborhood."
      ],
      [
        "2023",
        "In a September bulletin the city told residents that an Ohio EPA requirement to build a new sewer treatment plant, plus non-compliance penalties, would mean borrowing over $70 million and roughly a…"
      ],
      [
        "2026",
        "Clearing for Jackson Street construction began August 24 and storm sewer construction began September 8, with Highbridge Road closed between the bridge and Parkside Reserve."
      ]
    ],
    "treat": "The Vermilion Water Plant draws raw water from Lake Erie and can switch to a Vermilion River intake if necessary; it also holds emergency interconnections with the City of Lorain and Erie County water systems. The CCR does not publish the treatment train step by step. What it documents is a…",
    "press": "Not published. No system-wide psi figure appears in the city's CCR, water department rules, or utilities pages.",
    "rate": {
      "g": 10.37,
      "n": "The city's codified water rules (section 1046.46, as published in the Water Department Rules and Regulations) set an inside-corporate-limits base rate of $5.00 per month per unit…",
      "m": 43.8
    },
    "imp": [
      [
        "Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM)",
        "58.7",
        "ppb",
        "80 (MCL)",
        "2023",
        "No violation on the running annual average, but individual site results ranged 17.9-85.9 ppb, so single samples did…"
      ],
      [
        "Haloacetic Acids (HAA5)",
        "28.1",
        "ppb",
        "60 (MCL)",
        "2023",
        "Range 9.7-42.4 ppb."
      ],
      [
        "Lead (90th percentile)",
        "1.68",
        "ppb",
        "15 (action…",
        "2023",
        "0 of 31 samples exceeded the action level."
      ],
      [
        "Copper (90th percentile)",
        "0.202",
        "ppm",
        "1.3 (action…",
        "2023",
        "0 of 31 samples exceeded the action level."
      ],
      [
        "Nitrate",
        "1.68",
        "ppm",
        "10 (MCL)",
        "2023",
        "Range 0.15-1.68 ppm; fertilizer runoff and natural deposits."
      ],
      [
        "Fluoride",
        "1.24",
        "mg/L",
        "4 (MCL)",
        "2023",
        "Range 0.79-1.24 mg/L; added at the plant."
      ],
      [
        "Barium",
        "0.017",
        "mg/L",
        "2 (MCL)",
        "2023",
        "Naturally occurring; drilling wastes and metal refinery discharge."
      ],
      [
        "Total Chlorine",
        "1.34",
        "ppm",
        "4 (MRDL)",
        "2023",
        "Range as printed 1.51-1.57 ppm."
      ],
      [
        "Turbidity",
        "0.55",
        "NTU",
        "0.30 in 95% of…",
        "2023",
        "Highest single reading of the year; the CCR states all samples were under the Ohio EPA limit and the lowest monthly…"
      ],
      [
        "Total Organic Carbon",
        "1.15",
        "removal…",
        "treatment…",
        "2023",
        "Range 1.14-1.94; in compliance with TOC removal requirements."
      ]
    ],
    "proj": [
      [
        "Vermilion on the Lake sanitary sewer lateral replacement and cleanout installation",
        4087906,
        "2023",
        "planned",
        "Ohio BUILDS Round 5 grant awarded July 2023 to replace all existing sanitary sewer service laterals to the right-of-way and install cleanouts for all…"
      ],
      [
        "Jackson Street reconstruction and storm sewer construction",
        null,
        "2026",
        "under construction",
        "Clearing began August 24, 2026; storm sewer work began September 8, 2026, with Highbridge Road closed between the bridge and Parkside Reserve. Cost not…"
      ]
    ],
    "plan": [
      [
        "Ohio EPA-mandated wastewater treatment plant replacement",
        70000000,
        "2023",
        "planned",
        "The city has told residents it must build a new sewer treatment facility under EPA requirements, with penalties for non-compliance, requiring borrowing of over…"
      ]
    ],
    "stress": "Vermilion is a Lake Erie shoreline plant, so raw-water quantity is not the constraint — quality and resilience are. Ohio EPA's source water assessment finds the Lake Erie source susceptible to contamination from municipal wastewater treatment discharges, industrial wastewater discharges, air contamination deposition, runoff from…",
    "sew": {
      "s": "The city runs its own wastewater treatment plant (Utilities Department, Dan Hall). It is under an Ohio EPA requirement to build a new sewer treatment facility, which the city says means borrowing over $70 million and a roughly 350% sewer rate increase. Ordinance 2023-46 sets the inside-city volumetric sewer rate at $7.22 per 100 cubic…",
      "st": "The city builds and maintains storm sewers as part of street projects — storm sewer construction on Jackson Street began September 8, 2026 — but no separate stormwater utility, fee, or system description is published."
    },
    "fun": [
      "Vermilion's plant is dual-sourced: Lake Erie normally, the Vermilion River when necessary, plus emergency interconnections with both Lorain and Erie County — four possible ways to get water into the mains, unusual for a…",
      "The inside-city sewer rate is scheduled to more than triple in three years, from $7.22 per 100 cubic feet in 2023 to $24.36 in 2026, to pay for an EPA-mandated new treatment plant.",
      "You can buy water by the truckload at the Vermilion Bulk Water Station for $1.00 per 100 gallons.",
      "Households earning under $26,000 a year can apply annually for a 50% discount on the base rate and on the first 300 cubic feet of water each month.",
      "Sending a 5/8-inch water meter out for accuracy testing costs $450 — refunded if the meter turns out to be reading wrong."
    ],
    "src": {
      "history": [
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/utilities-department/documents/consumer-confidence-report.pdf",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/2/utilities-department/documents/2022.pdf",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/Your-Government/City-Council/2023-Ordinances-and-Resolutions/2023-Ordinances/Ordinances/2023-46-AMEND-WASTEWATER-RATES",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/2025-News/Past-News-Articles/Utility-Rate-Update"
      ],
      "treatment": [
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/utilities-department/documents/consumer-confidence-report.pdf"
      ],
      "rates": [
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/2/utilities-department/documents/2022.pdf",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/Your-Government/City-Council/2023-Ordinances-and-Resolutions/2023-Ordinances/Ordinances/2023-46-AMEND-WASTEWATER-RATES",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/2025-News/Past-News-Articles/Utility-Rate-Update"
      ],
      "impurities": [
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/utilities-department/documents/consumer-confidence-report.pdf"
      ],
      "projects": [
        "https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/OHIOGOVERNOR/2023/07/20/file_attachments/2560320/Ohio%20BUILDS%20Water%20Infrastructure%20Grant%20Projects%20-%20Round%205.pdf",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/2025-Main-Menu-Folder/2025-City-Hall/2025-Utilities-Department/Services/Wastewater-Treatment-Plant"
      ],
      "planned": [
        "https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OHVERM/bulletins/3719c0e",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/Your-Government/City-Council/2023-Ordinances-and-Resolutions/2023-Ordinances/Ordinances/2023-46-AMEND-WASTEWATER-RATES"
      ],
      "water_stress": [
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/utilities-department/documents/consumer-confidence-report.pdf",
        "https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OHVERM/bulletins/3719c0e"
      ],
      "sewer": [
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/Your-Government/City-Council/2023-Ordinances-and-Resolutions/2023-Ordinances/Ordinances/2023-46-AMEND-WASTEWATER-RATES",
        "https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OHVERM/bulletins/3719c0e",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/2/utilities-department/documents/2022.pdf",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/2025-Main-Menu-Folder/2025-City-Hall/2025-Utilities-Department/Services/Wastewater-Treatment-Plant"
      ],
      "fun_facts": [
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/utilities-department/documents/consumer-confidence-report.pdf",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/2/utilities-department/documents/2022.pdf",
        "https://www.cityofvermilionohio.gov/Your-Government/City-Council/2023-Ordinances-and-Resolutions/2023-Ordinances/Ordinances/2023-46-AMEND-WASTEWATER-RATES"
      ]
    }
  },
  "zips_served": [
    {
      "zip": "44089",
      "share": 0.6767,
      "dominant": true
    }
  ],
  "photo": {
    "url": "/photos/OH2201511.jpg",
    "caption": "Marina on the Vermilion River in Vermilion, Ohio, about a quarter mile from Lake Erie",
    "credit": "Wikimedia Commons",
    "license": "CC BY 2.5"
  },
  "url": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH2201511/",
  "api": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/water/OH2201511.json",
  "generated": "2026-09-16",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0 for the compilation; each source keeps its own terms",
  "cite": "Cracked Buckeye (Open Shower Co), \"Vermilion City · OH2201511\", https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH2201511/, built 2026-09-16, accessed [date].",
  "schema": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/schema.json"
}