{
  "type": "water",
  "pwsid": "OH4700911",
  "name": "Oberlin Water Department",
  "county": "Lorain",
  "population": 8600,
  "producer": true,
  "source_class": "river",
  "label": "West Branch Black River, via Oberlin Upground Reservoir",
  "bodies": [
    "West Branch Black River",
    "Oberlin Upground Reservoir"
  ],
  "intakes": [
    "Oberlin W Br Black River Reservo",
    "River"
  ],
  "wells": 0,
  "aquifer": "",
  "notes": "River intake supplies the plant, supplemented by the upground reservoir (386 MG) and two elevated tanks; emergency interconnect exists with Rural Lorain County Water Authority but was unused in 2025.",
  "urls": [
    "https://cityofoberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Oberlin-Water-CCR-2026.pdf",
    "https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/WaterWorks/waterworks.html"
  ],
  "chain": [
    "OH4700911"
  ],
  "plants": [
    {
      "n": "Oberlin Water Treatment Plant",
      "a": "43885 Parsons Road, Oberlin, OH 44074",
      "la": 41.2776,
      "lo": -82.1759,
      "pt": "plant",
      "wb": "West Branch Black River",
      "src": "West Branch Black River, via Oberlin Upground Reservoir",
      "cls": "river",
      "in": [
        {
          "n": "West Branch Black River Diversion",
          "wb": "West Branch Black River",
          "role": "primary",
          "src": "River water diverted from the West Branch of the Black River into the Oberlin Upground Reservoir, supplying most of the plant's raw water",
          "la": 41.2776,
          "lo": -82.1759,
          "pt": "intake"
        },
        {
          "n": "River Intake and Screen Building",
          "wb": "West Branch Black River",
          "role": "primary",
          "src": "Screened river-intake structure on the West Branch Black River at the reservoir/plant site that pumps river water toward the reservoir and plant",
          "la": 41.2776,
          "lo": -82.1759,
          "pt": "intake"
        },
        {
          "n": "Oberlin Upground Reservoir",
          "wb": "Off-stream upground reservoir (386 MG) filled from West Branch Black River",
          "role": "storage",
          "src": "386-million-gallon upground reservoir at 43885 Parsons Road that stores pumped West Branch Black River water for the adjacent treatment plant",
          "la": 41.2776,
          "lo": -82.1759,
          "pt": "intake"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "facts": {
    "hist": [
      [
        "1882",
        "A fire on March 10 burned through a downtown block; the fire chief reported that the water supply \"gave out entirely,\" exposing the town's lack of firefighting water."
      ],
      [
        "1886",
        "After a second devastating downtown fire that spring, voters approved a $50,000 water works bond 437 to 100 in April. The reservoir built about a mile southwest of town covered ten acres at 16 feet…"
      ],
      [
        "1887",
        "Water service inaugurated December 23. By that year the Water Works was already the town's second-largest budget item, behind only the Street Department."
      ],
      [
        "1888",
        "First major fire test of the new system; the local press reported the water works a success."
      ],
      [
        "1903",
        "Oberlin installed the first municipal lime-soda water softening plant in America at the Morgan Street Water Works, softening water conveyed from the Vermilion River by way of the Kipton Reservoir.…"
      ],
      [
        "1960",
        "A new plant on Parsons Road drawing from the Black River replaced the Morgan Street works; the Morgan Street and Kipton reservoirs left drinking-water service in the early 1960s."
      ]
    ],
    "treat": "Surface water from the West Branch of the Black River, supplemented by the city's reservoir and two elevated storage tanks, is treated at the 2.25 MGD plant at 43885 Parsons Road. The train is coagulation with aluminum sulfate and settling, lime-and-soda-ash softening (finished hardness about 160…",
    "press": "Not published. The city documents over 40 miles of water line serving roughly 3,000 homes and businesses, a 2.25 MGD plant and two elevated storage tanks, but publishes no system…",
    "rate": {
      "g": 15.84,
      "n": "Water only. Effective 2/1/2026, inside city: $11.85 per 100 cubic feet, with a minimum monthly bill of $35.55 based on minimum usage of 300 cubic feet (there is no separate fixed…",
      "m": 79.2
    },
    "imp": [
      [
        "Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM)",
        "74.68",
        "ppb",
        "80 ppb",
        "2025",
        "Running annual average. Individual detections ranged 43.60 to 121.8 ppb. No violation, but the compliance average sits…"
      ],
      [
        "Haloacetic Acids (HAA5)",
        "18.9",
        "ppb",
        "60 ppb",
        "2025",
        "Range of detections printed as 9.6-18.5 ppb; the CCR's Level Found of 18.9 sits just above its own printed range…"
      ],
      [
        "Total Chlorine",
        "1.4",
        "ppm",
        "4 ppm (MRDL)",
        "2025",
        "Range 1.2-1.6 ppm."
      ],
      [
        "Fluoride",
        "1.03",
        "ppm",
        "4 ppm",
        "2025",
        "Range 0.77-1.09 ppm; the plant fluoridates to about 1 mg/L."
      ],
      [
        "Nitrate",
        "1.11",
        "ppm",
        "10 ppm",
        "2025",
        "Range 0.29-1.11 ppm. Well below limit."
      ],
      [
        "Barium",
        "0.016",
        "ppm",
        "2 ppm",
        "2025",
        "Single sample; no range reported."
      ],
      [
        "Atrazine",
        "0.3",
        "ppb",
        "3 ppb",
        "2025",
        "Range 0.15-0.62 ppb. Agricultural herbicide, well under the limit."
      ],
      [
        "Simazine",
        "0.083",
        "ppb",
        "4 ppb",
        "2025",
        "Range 0.062-0.110 ppb."
      ],
      [
        "Turbidity",
        "0.21",
        "NTU",
        "TT: 0.3 NTU in…",
        "2025",
        "Highest recorded value; 100% of monthly samples met the standard. Range 0.02-0.21 NTU."
      ],
      [
        "Total Organic Carbon (removal ratio)",
        "1.74",
        "ratio",
        "TT: must exceed…",
        "2025",
        "Range 1.33-2.15. A value above 1 means the required TOC removal was achieved."
      ]
    ],
    "proj": [
      [
        "Morgan Street Reservoirs restructuring and wetland conversion",
        300000,
        "2020",
        "under construction",
        "City-commissioned Alternatives Analysis Report dated 09/21/2020. Council approved converting the upper rectangular reservoir into a wetland with paths and…"
      ]
    ],
    "plan": [],
    "stress": "Ohio EPA's 2002 source water assessment, still cited in the 2026 CCR, treats all Ohio surface waters as susceptible to contamination: they are accessible, easily contaminated, and move fast enough that an upstream spill can reach the intake with little warning. Oberlin's protection area holds a moderate number of potential contaminant…",
    "sew": {
      "s": "The city's Water Environment Protection Facility is a 1.5 MGD Class IV plant using physical, chemical and biological treatment, discharging to Plum Creek; Class B biosolids are land-applied to agricultural ground at agronomic rates. Sanitary sewer is billed separately from water: inside city $7.61 per 100 cubic feet with a $22.83 monthly…",
      "st": "Not documented in the city sources reviewed."
    },
    "fun": [
      "Oberlin built the first municipal lime-soda water softening plant in America in 1903, at the Morgan Street Water Works. The site is now a city park, and the reservoir beside it is being reshaped into a wetland.",
      "The 1886 water works bond was $50,000 — roughly $925,000 today, and about eight years of the town's typical spending. Within a year the Water Works was the second-largest line in the town budget, behind only the Street…",
      "Voters approved the system 437 to 100 in April 1886, after downtown fires in 1882 and 1886; the fire chief's verdict on 1882 was that the water \"gave out entirely.\"",
      "Oberlin's 2025 TTHM running average of 74.68 ppb is within 7% of the federal 80 ppb limit, with individual samples as high as 121.8 ppb — the price of disinfecting organic-rich river water.",
      "The plant softens Oberlin's water to about 160 mg/L, or 9.3 grains per gallon, and adds phosphate for corrosion control; the most recent lead round came back at a 90th percentile of zero."
    ],
    "src": {
      "history": [
        "https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/WaterWorks/waterworks.html",
        "https://oberlinheritagecenter.org/history-of-the-morgan-street-water-works/",
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Oberlin-Water-CCR-2026.pdf",
        "https://oberlinreview.org/24185/news/city-council-moves-to-restructure-morgan-street-reservoirs-develop-wetland/"
      ],
      "treatment": [
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/city-government/departments/public-works/water-department/",
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Oberlin-Water-CCR-2026.pdf"
      ],
      "pressure": [
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/city-government/departments/public-works/water-department/"
      ],
      "rates": [
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/city-government/departments/finance/utilities/rates/"
      ],
      "impurities": [
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Oberlin-Water-CCR-2026.pdf"
      ],
      "projects": [
        "https://oberlinreview.org/24185/news/city-council-moves-to-restructure-morgan-street-reservoirs-develop-wetland/",
        "https://chroniclet.com/news/303925/drained-old-oberlin-reservoir-being-reshaped-as-a-wetland/",
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Morgan-St.-Reservoirs-Alternatives-Analysis-Final-Report-09-21-2020.pdf"
      ],
      "water_stress": [
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Oberlin-Water-CCR-2026.pdf",
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/city-government/departments/public-works/water-department/"
      ],
      "sewer": [
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/for-residents/public-works-department/water-environmental-protection-facility/",
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/city-government/departments/finance/utilities/rates/"
      ],
      "fun_facts": [
        "https://oberlinheritagecenter.org/history-of-the-morgan-street-water-works/",
        "https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/WaterWorks/waterworks.html",
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Oberlin-Water-CCR-2026.pdf",
        "https://cityofoberlin.com/city-government/departments/public-works/water-department/"
      ]
    }
  },
  "zips_served": [
    {
      "zip": "44074",
      "share": 0.7677,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44050",
      "share": 0.0122,
      "dominant": false
    }
  ],
  "photo": {
    "url": "/photos/OH4700911.jpg",
    "caption": "Tappan Square in downtown Oberlin, Ohio",
    "credit": "Daderot",
    "license": "Public domain"
  },
  "url": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH4700911/",
  "api": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/water/OH4700911.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), \"Oberlin Water Department · OH4700911\", https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH4700911/, built 2026-09-16, accessed [date].",
  "schema": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/schema.json"
}