{
  "type": "water",
  "pwsid": "OH5002303",
  "name": "Youngstown City",
  "county": "Mahoning",
  "population": 130530,
  "producer": false,
  "source_class": "reservoir",
  "label": "Meander Creek Reservoir + Berlin Reservoir (Mahoning River basin)",
  "bodies": [
    "Meander Creek Reservoir",
    "Berlin Lake"
  ],
  "intakes": [],
  "wells": null,
  "aquifer": "",
  "notes": "Youngstown buys its entire supply from MVSD, whose sole raw-water source is the Meander Creek Reservoir (a Mahoning River tributary impoundment created in 1932, replacing Youngstown's earlier direct Mahoning River intake).",
  "urls": [
    "https://youngstownohio.gov/water/",
    "https://www.meanderwater.org/district-information",
    "https://data.epa.gov/efservice/WATER_SYSTEM_FACILITY/PWSID/OH7801811/FACILITY_TYPE_CODE/IN/JSON"
  ],
  "chain": [
    "OH5002303",
    "OH7801811"
  ],
  "plants": [],
  "facts": {
    "hist": [
      [
        "1926",
        "The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District was formed under Ohio's sanitary district law by its member cities, Youngstown and Niles, to build a shared reservoir supply."
      ],
      [
        "1932",
        "MVSD began delivering water to Youngstown and Niles on July 9, 1932 from the new Meander Creek Reservoir; McDonald is served as an agent of the members."
      ],
      [
        "1978-1979",
        "MVSD's highest recorded output, averaging 40.48 million gallons a day, still well under the plant's 60 MGD design capacity."
      ],
      [
        "2019-2022",
        "MVSD ran repeated fracking-waste and PFAS lab tests on Meander Creek Reservoir water and posted the results publicly amid shale drilling in the watershed."
      ]
    ],
    "treat": "Youngstown treats none of its own water: MVSD draws surface water from Meander Creek Reservoir and treats about 27.3 MGD by chemical softening, disinfection, fluoridation, taste-and-odor control, mixing, settling, filtration and pumping.",
    "press": "not published — no psi figure in the 2025 CCR; Youngstown moves about 17.4 MGD through 750 miles of pipeline, and MVSD's 60 MGD plant runs near 27.3 MGD.",
    "rate": {
      "g": null,
      "n": "Youngstown's chart (eff. Feb 1, 2026) gives city water as (5.17034 x consumption) + $2.81 for 4-33 units, but never defines the unit, so no $/1,000 gal is stated.",
      "m": null
    },
    "imp": [
      [
        "TTHM (total trihalomethanes)",
        "72.63",
        "ppb",
        "80",
        "2025",
        "Disinfection byproduct; range 40.30-90.50, individual samples above the MCL. No violation."
      ],
      [
        "HAA5 (haloacetic acids)",
        "29.00",
        "ppb",
        "60",
        "2025",
        "Disinfection byproduct; range 13.60-36.70."
      ],
      [
        "Lead (90th percentile, Round 2)",
        "ND",
        "ppb",
        "15 (action…",
        "2025",
        "1 of 104 sites above the action level; range ND-180.00 ppb. No violation."
      ],
      [
        "Copper (90th percentile, Round 2)",
        "0.07",
        "ppm",
        "1.3 (action…",
        "2025",
        "0 of 104 sites above the action level."
      ],
      [
        "Fluoride",
        "1.00",
        "ppm",
        "4",
        "2025",
        "Added to promote strong teeth plus natural deposits; range 0.85-1.10."
      ],
      [
        "Nitrate",
        "0.33",
        "ppm",
        "10",
        "2025",
        "Fertilizer and septic runoff; range 0.10-0.56, far below the MCL."
      ],
      [
        "Chlorine",
        "2.25",
        "ppm",
        "4 (MRDL)",
        "2025",
        "Disinfectant residual; range 1.87-3.11."
      ],
      [
        "Turbidity",
        "0.09",
        "NTU",
        "TT",
        "2025",
        "Filtration performance measure; treatment-technique standard met."
      ]
    ],
    "proj": [
      [
        "Buckeye Plat water main and lead service line replacement",
        8896799,
        "2026",
        "under construction",
        "Water main and lead services for 720+ homes on the southeast side near Midlothian Blvd and Sheridan Rd; council raised the appropriation to $8.9M."
      ],
      [
        "Crandall Park area lead service line replacement",
        5799516,
        "2026",
        "planned",
        "About 470 lead lines around Gypsy Lane, Fifth Ave, Tod Lane and Belmont Ave; 50% Ohio EPA principal forgiveness on the engineer's estimate."
      ],
      [
        "Drinking Water Assistance Fund lead line replacement",
        500000,
        "2026",
        "planned",
        "229 lead service lines to be replaced with an Ohio EPA Drinking Water Assistance Fund grant."
      ],
      [
        "Vacuum excavation truck purchase",
        1200000,
        "2025",
        "completed",
        "A $1.2M congressional direct spending grant bought the water department's first vac truck in December 2025 for lead service line work."
      ]
    ],
    "plan": [
      [
        "Glenwood Avenue lead service line replacement",
        13000000,
        "2026",
        "planned",
        "About 800 lead lines from Midlothian Blvd to Almyra Ave on the South Side, funded by an Ohio EPA WSRLA loan carrying 50% principal forgiveness."
      ]
    ],
    "stress": "Supply is ample — MVSD's 60 MGD plant runs near 27.3 MGD. The pressure is on quality and pipes: 2025 TTHM averaged 72.63 ppb against an 80 ppb MCL with single samples reaching 90.5 ppb, and lead services remain, one 2025 tap reading 180 ppb.",
    "sew": {
      "s": "Youngstown bills its own city sewer service — (9.09 x consumption) + $41.73 a month as of Feb. 2026 — but the operating entity, treatment plant, capacity, receiving stream and any CSO consent decree could not be verified from published sources in this pass.",
      "st": "Not confirmed — no public source located showing whether Youngstown's storm sewers are separate or combined, and no stormwater utility fee was found."
    },
    "fun": [
      "Meander Creek Reservoir is seven miles long with 40 miles of shoreline across 2,010 acres, holding 10 billion gallons at spillway crest plus a billion more behind an inflatable rubber bladder dam.",
      "MVSD serves about 220,000 people across Youngstown, Niles, McDonald, Girard, Canfield, Mineral Ridge, Lordstown, Craig Beach and parts of ten townships — more than Youngstown's own population.",
      "The valley drank the most water during the steel era: MVSD's record was 40.48 MGD in 1978-79, and it now treats about 27.3 MGD from the same 1932 reservoir.",
      "Youngstown's 2025 lead sampling produced a 90th-percentile result of ND, yet one of 104 taps came back at 180 ppb — twelve times the 15 ppb action level."
    ]
  },
  "zips_served": [
    {
      "zip": "44503",
      "share": 1.0,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44504",
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    },
    {
      "zip": "44507",
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      "dominant": true
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    {
      "zip": "44509",
      "share": 1.0,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44510",
      "share": 1.0,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44511",
      "share": 1.0,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44555",
      "share": 1.0,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44515",
      "share": 0.9924,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44506",
      "share": 0.99,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44502",
      "share": 0.97,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44505",
      "share": 0.8839,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44512",
      "share": 0.7567,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44406",
      "share": 0.2296,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44514",
      "share": 0.0975,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44440",
      "share": 0.0938,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44437",
      "share": 0.0108,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44436",
      "share": 0.0065,
      "dominant": false
    }
  ],
  "photo": {
    "url": "/photos/OH5002303.jpg",
    "caption": "Meander Creek Reservoir near Youngstown, Ohio, one of Youngstown's two source reservoirs",
    "credit": "Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's C",
    "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  "url": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH5002303/",
  "api": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/water/OH5002303.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), \"Youngstown City · OH5002303\", https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH5002303/, built 2026-09-16, accessed [date].",
  "schema": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/schema.json"
}
