{
  "type": "water",
  "pwsid": "OH4502314",
  "name": "Newark City",
  "county": "Licking",
  "population": 49934,
  "producer": true,
  "source_class": "river",
  "label": "North Fork Licking River",
  "bodies": [
    "North Fork Licking River"
  ],
  "intakes": [
    "Fork Licking Reser"
  ],
  "wells": 0,
  "aquifer": "",
  "notes": "Raw water is withdrawn directly from the North Fork Licking River via bank intake screens (not a named reservoir despite SDWIS 'RESER' abbreviation); city also maintains a 100-acre wellfield near St. Louisville as backup when river levels are low.",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.newarkohio.gov/water-treatment-plant/"
  ],
  "chain": [
    "OH4502314"
  ],
  "plants": [
    {
      "n": "Newark Water Treatment Plant",
      "a": "164 Waterworks Road, Newark, OH 43055",
      "la": 40.0975,
      "lo": -82.412,
      "pt": "intake",
      "wb": "North Fork Licking River",
      "src": "North Fork of the Licking River, drawn directly at riverbank intake screens beside the plant at the north end of Newark",
      "cls": "river"
    }
  ],
  "facts": {
    "hist": [
      [
        "1886",
        "The privately owned Newark Water Company began operating a pumping station and distribution system."
      ],
      [
        "1910",
        "City of Newark bought the private water company and merged it with the municipal plant it had built in 1905 on the North Fork."
      ],
      [
        "1922",
        "Newark became the first municipal waterworks to remove settled sludge by mechanical means, adding softening and filtration at the same time."
      ],
      [
        "2004",
        "Plant became the first in Ohio and one of the first in the United States to disinfect drinking water with ultraviolet light."
      ],
      [
        "2016-2020",
        "Phase II Combined Sewer Overflow Long-Term Control Plan submitted Dec. 31, 2016, amended Feb. 21, 2020, and approved by Ohio EPA on March 27, 2020."
      ]
    ],
    "treat": "Lime softening plant, 15 MGD design, drawing directly from the North Fork Licking River (~75 sq mi watershed) through riverbank mechanical screens. Pre-oxidation with permanganate, chlorine and powdered carbon; rapid mix with lime and ferric sulfate; flocculation; three sedimentation basins…",
    "press": "not published; a finished water pump station with four pumps supplies pressure to the distribution system, but no psi figure is given",
    "rate": {
      "g": 6.35,
      "n": "Effective Jan. 1, 2026: $4.75 per 100 cubic feet for the first 350 units ($6.35 per 1,000 gal). Combined water and sewer minimum bill is $31.77 per month; sewer adds a $9.33…",
      "m": 0
    },
    "imp": [
      [
        "Total trihalomethanes (TTHM)",
        "58.375",
        "ppb",
        "MCL 80",
        "2025",
        "Compliant on a running average, but single samples ranged as high as 106 ppb"
      ],
      [
        "Haloacetic acids (HAA5)",
        "27.65",
        "ppb",
        "MCL 60",
        "2025",
        "Range 5.8-55.0"
      ],
      [
        "Nitrate",
        "6.02",
        "ppm",
        "MCL 10",
        "2025",
        "About 60% of the MCL; range 0.24-6.02, reflecting agricultural runoff to the river"
      ],
      [
        "Atrazine",
        "0.23",
        "ppb",
        "MCL 3",
        "2025",
        "Herbicide from row crops; range below detection to 0.59"
      ],
      [
        "Fluoride",
        "1.00",
        "ppm",
        "MCL 4",
        "2025",
        "Added deliberately; the plant has fluoridated since 1956"
      ],
      [
        "Total chlorine",
        "1.39",
        "ppm",
        "MRDL 4",
        "2025",
        "Range 1.19-1.66"
      ],
      [
        "Lead (90th percentile)",
        "ND",
        "ppb",
        "AL 15",
        "2023",
        "Non-detect at the 90th percentile; 0 of 31 samples over the action level"
      ],
      [
        "Copper (90th percentile)",
        "0.021",
        "ppm",
        "AL 1.3",
        "2023",
        "0 of 31 samples over the action level"
      ]
    ],
    "proj": [
      [
        "High rate treatment facility at Newark WWTP",
        null,
        "",
        "completed",
        "Ballasted flocculation adding 28 MGD of wet-weather solids removal and disinfection; Ohio EPA proposes reclassifying its Outfall 034 from a CSO to a bypass."
      ],
      [
        "Newark WWTP re-rating to 9.0 MGD",
        null,
        "2026",
        "completed",
        "Permit-to-Install DSWPTI-260365 issued April 7, 2026 raising average daily design flow from 8.0 to 9.0 MGD; plant last upgraded 2022."
      ],
      [
        "CSO Long-Term Control Plan Bundle 1",
        null,
        "",
        "completed",
        "Implemented over the last five years; an Oct. 24, 2025 programmatic review found the projects performed better than expected."
      ]
    ],
    "plan": [
      [
        "CSO Long-Term Control Plan Bundles 2 and 3",
        null,
        "",
        "planned",
        "Separations, interceptor upsizing, relief sewers and headworks work targeting 11 overflow events per typical year and over 99% wet-weather capture; the 16…"
      ]
    ],
    "stress": "A river-fed supply on a small ~75 sq mi agricultural watershed: nitrate reached 6.02 ppm against a 10 ppm MCL, atrazine is routinely detected, and Cryptosporidium turned up in 5 of 11 raw water samples in the CCR's cited monitoring. Individual TTHM samples ran to 106 ppb. Low river flow is the standing supply risk.",
    "sew": {
      "s": "City of Newark operates its own WWTP (built 1948, last upgraded 2022) discharging to the Licking River, then the Muskingum and Ohio. Average daily design flow was re-rated from 8.0 to 9.0 MGD in April 2026; peak secondary capacity is 20 MGD, with overflow to a 1.0-MG equalization basin and then a 28 MGD high rate treatment system. The…",
      "st": "Newark runs a separate stormwater utility under Ordinances 17-21 and 05-55, created for Clean Water Act Phase II compliance and billed per equivalent residential unit - $8.05/ERU/month effective Jan. 1, 2026, rising to $9.60 by 2030 under Resolution 25-69."
    },
    "fun": [
      "In 1922 Newark became the first municipal waterworks anywhere to scrape settled sludge out of its basins by machine rather than by hand.",
      "Newark was the first water system in Ohio, and among the first in the country, to disinfect with ultraviolet light - a step it added in 2004.",
      "The plant deliberately drives its water to a pH of about 10.8 with lime to crash out hardness, then bubbles carbon dioxide back in to bring it down to about 8.8 before filtering.",
      "Only 16% of Newark's sewers are combined, but that sixth of the system still feeds 20 permitted overflow outfalls to the Licking River and Raccoon Creek."
    ]
  },
  "zips_served": [
    {
      "zip": "43055",
      "share": 0.7481,
      "dominant": true
    }
  ],
  "photo": {
    "url": "/photos/OH4502314.jpg",
    "caption": "Downtown Newark, Ohio welcome sign",
    "credit": "Mark Spearman from Newark, Ohio, USA",
    "license": "CC BY 2.0"
  },
  "url": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH4502314/",
  "api": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/water/OH4502314.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), \"Newark City · OH4502314\", https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH4502314/, built 2026-09-16, accessed [date].",
  "schema": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/schema.json"
}