{ "type": "water", "pwsid": "OH4700003", "name": "Amherst City", "county": "Lorain", "population": 11797, "producer": false, "source_class": "erie", "label": "Lake Erie (mainly via Elyria)", "bodies": [ "Lake Erie" ], "intakes": [], "wells": null, "aquifer": "", "notes": "Amherst buys from both Elyria and Lorain City, both of which draw from Lake Erie; search results describe Elyria's Lake Erie plant as supplying Amherst but did not give an exact split with Lorain, so Elyria is assumed primary pending confirmation.", "urls": [ "https://www.cityofelyria.org/department/water-pumping/", "https://www.epicwaterfilters.com/blogs/news/lorain-ohio-water-quality-report" ], "chain": [ "OH4700003", "OH4700411" ], "plants": [ { "n": "City of Lorain Water Purification Plant", "a": "Foot of Lakeside Avenue, Lorain, OH 44052 (plant is adjacent to Lakeview Park on the Lake Erie shoreline)", "la": 41.4755, "lo": -82.1755, "pt": "intake", "wb": "Lake Erie", "src": "Lake Erie intake crib about 2,800 feet offshore (26.5 feet deep), outside the breakwall near Lakeview Park in the City of Lorain", "cls": "erie", "k": "OH4700711#0", "of": "OH4700711" }, { "n": "City of Elyria Water Pumping Plant (Elyria-owned plant, located in Lorain)", "a": "3628 West Erie Avenue, Lorain, OH 44053", "la": 41.4783, "lo": -82.2125, "pt": "intake", "wb": "Lake Erie", "src": "Lake Erie, two intake pipes (24-inch and 42-inch) roughly 1,500 feet offshore from the Elyria-owned lakefront plant on West Erie Avenue in Lorain", "cls": "erie", "k": "OH4700411#0", "of": "OH4700411" } ], "facts": { "hist": [ [ "1811", "Pioneer settler Jacob Shupe arrived in the area that became Amherst; the downtown area was settled by Josiah Harris in 1818." ], [ "1836", "Village plat recorded as the 'town plat of Amherst'; it became 'Amherstville' around 1839, then 'North Amherst', and finally 'Amherst' again in 1909." ], [ "late 1800s", "Amherst became known as the 'Sandstone Center of the World' on the strength of its quarrying industry." ], [ "2015", "Current water rate schedule took effect January 1, 2015: $6.58 for the first 3,000 gallons inside city, then $3.02 per 1,000 gallons plus the WSC surcharge." ], [ "2026", "City distributed its 2025 Consumer Confidence Report, stating it is a purchase surface water system buying all of its water from the cities of Lorain and Elyria and holding a current, unconditional…" ] ], "treat": "Amherst treats no water of its own. It is a consecutive (purchase) surface water system that buys finished Lake Erie water from the City of Lorain and the City of Elyria and distributes it; its CCR carries Amherst's own distribution-system sampling plus the reports of both suppliers. The plants…", "press": "Not published. Neither Amherst's utilities pages nor its CCR give service pressures, pressure zones, or storage figures.", "rate": { "g": 3.02, "n": "City of Amherst published rate schedule, effective January 1, 2015. Inside city: $6.58 covers the first 3,000 gallons, then $3.02 per 1,000 gallons PLUS a 'Water Supply Cost'…", "m": null }, "imp": [ [ "Total trihalomethanes (TTHM)", "55.9", "ppb", "80", "2025", "Range of detections 17.7-74 ppb - the tightest margin in Amherst's report, a consequence of buying already-chlorinated…" ], [ "Haloacetic acids (HAA5)", "20.28", "ppb", "60", "2025", "Range 6-31.4 ppb. By-product of drinking water disinfection." ], [ "Total chlorine", "1.29", "ppm", "4 (MRDL)", "2025", "Range 1.0-1.54 ppm. Water additive used to control microbes." ], [ "Lead", "2.5 (90th…", "ppb", "15 (action…", "2024", "0 out of 30 samples exceeded the 15 ppb action level." ], [ "Copper", "0.083 (90th…", "ppm", "1.3 (action…", "2024", "0 out of 30 samples exceeded the 1.3 ppm action level." ] ], "proj": [], "plan": [], "stress": "Supply volume is not a constraint - Lake Erie is 2.5 miles away and effectively inexhaustible - but Amherst has no plant, no raw water source and no independent production capacity at all: 100% of its water is purchased finished from two upstream utilities, Lorain and Elyria. Everything that happens at those plants passes straight…", "sew": { "s": "Billed by the city's Utilities Department on metered water consumption, with a published minimum of $30.32/month inside the city and $45.48/month outside. Amherst does not publish the name, capacity or receiving stream of the treating plant on its utilities or rate pages; Ohio EPA's 2023 rate survey lists Amherst as providing sewer…", "st": "No separate stormwater utility fee appears on the city's published water and sewer rate schedule. The Utilities Department maintains stormwater education pages, consistent with routine MS4 public-outreach obligations, but no fee, permit detail or program…" }, "fun": [ "Amherst sits 2.5 miles from Lake Erie and still owns no piece of the lake: it buys every gallon finished from two neighboring cities rather than building an intake of its own.", "The 'Elyria' water plant that supplies part of Amherst is not in Elyria - it is an Elyria-owned plant at 3628 West Erie Avenue inside the City of Lorain.", "Amherst's water bill has a line item, the Water Supply Cost, that changes every single month because it is a straight pass-through of what Lorain and Elyria charge that month.", "The posted Amherst rate schedule still carries an effective date of January 1, 2015 - the fixed part of the bill has not been re-legislated in a decade; the variable WSC does the moving.", "Before it was a Cleveland-area suburb, Amherst billed itself as the 'Sandstone Center of the World,' and the quarrying motto is still the city's." ], "src": { "history": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amherst,_Ohio", "https://amherstohio.org/ccr/", "https://amherstohio.org/utilities/rate-info/" ], "treatment": [ "https://amherstohio.org/ccr/" ], "pressure": [ "https://amherstohio.org/utilities/", "https://amherstohio.org/ccr/" ], "rates": [ "https://amherstohio.org/utilities/rate-info/", "https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/epa.ohio.gov/Portals/43/Rate%20Reports/2023-Sewer-and-Water-Rate-Survey.pdf" ], "impurities": [ "https://amherstohio.org/ccr/" ], "water_stress": [ "https://amherstohio.org/ccr/", "https://amherstohio.org/utilities/rate-info/", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amherst,_Ohio" ], "sewer": [ "https://amherstohio.org/utilities/rate-info/", "https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/epa.ohio.gov/Portals/43/Rate%20Reports/2023-Sewer-and-Water-Rate-Survey.pdf", "https://amherstohio.org/utilities/" ], "fun_facts": [ "https://amherstohio.org/ccr/", "https://amherstohio.org/utilities/rate-info/", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amherst,_Ohio" ] } }, "zips_served": [ { "zip": "44001", "share": 0.7783, "dominant": true }, { "zip": "44035", "share": 0.0133, "dominant": false }, { "zip": "44053", "share": 0.013, "dominant": false } ], "photo": { "url": "/photos/OH4700003.jpg", "caption": "Town square in Amherst, Ohio", "credit": "w_lemay", "license": "CC BY-SA 2.0" }, "url": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH4700003/", "api": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/water/OH4700003.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), \"Amherst City · OH4700003\", https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH4700003/, built 2026-09-16, accessed [date].", "schema": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/schema.json" }