{
  "type": "water",
  "pwsid": "OH5201903",
  "name": "Medina Co/northwest",
  "county": "Medina",
  "population": 46324,
  "producer": false,
  "source_class": "erie",
  "label": "Lake Erie",
  "bodies": [
    "Lake Erie",
    "New London Reservoir",
    "Buck Creek (Vermilion River)"
  ],
  "intakes": [],
  "wells": null,
  "aquifer": "Jerome Fork basin wells (City of Ashland)",
  "notes": "RLCWA itself is a wholesale distributor that blends purchases from Avon Lake Regional Water (Lake Erie), Village of New London (Buck Creek/Vermilion River via New London Reservoir), and City of Ashland (Jerome Fork Basin wells).",
  "urls": [
    "https://rlcwa.com/customer_services/education/consumer_confidence_report.php",
    "https://cms9files.revize.com/rlcwaoh/RLCWA%202025%20CCR%20final.pdf",
    "https://cms9files.revize.com/rlcwaoh/RLCWA%202023%20CCR%20Final.pdf"
  ],
  "chain": [
    "OH5201903",
    "OH4701803",
    "OH4700311"
  ],
  "plants": [
    {
      "n": "Avon Lake Regional Water Filtration Plant (wholesale supplier to Medina County N",
      "a": "33370 Lake Rd, Avon Lake, OH 44012",
      "la": 41.5065,
      "lo": -82.0193,
      "pt": "plant",
      "wb": "Lake Erie",
      "src": "Lake Erie, drawn through two separate offshore intake cribs serving the Avon Lake Regional Water treatment plant on the Avon Lake shoreline",
      "cls": "erie",
      "k": "OH4700311#0",
      "of": "OH4700311"
    }
  ],
  "facts": {
    "hist": [
      [
        "1926",
        "Avon Lake's Lake Erie filtration plant goes into operation; it later becomes the wholesale source at the head of this district's supply chain."
      ],
      [
        "1973",
        "Rural Lorain County Water Authority formed after a petition from 16 townships and 2 villages; it becomes this district's wholesale supplier."
      ],
      [
        "April 1974",
        "Lorain County Court of Common Pleas enters final judgment completing RLCWA's formation."
      ],
      [
        "1975/1982/19…",
        "Avon Lake's utility board signs successive wholesale contracts with RLCWA, Sheffield Village and the Eastern Transmission Line consortia."
      ],
      [
        "2023",
        "RLCWA fails to sample corrosion-control indicators at the required frequency in July-December, a monitoring violation disclosed in its own CCR."
      ]
    ],
    "treat": "Buys finished water; no plant of its own. Supplier RLCWA's CCR says all three of its sources - Avon Lake Regional Water (Lake Erie), the New London Reservoir and Ashland's Jerome Fork wells - treat by filtration and disinfection, with fluoride added.",
    "press": "Not published for this district. Supplier RLCWA runs 19 pressure zones, 18 storage tanks and 14 pumping stations across 1,200+ miles of main (GRW).",
    "rate": {
      "g": null,
      "n": "Medina County Sanitary Eng. sets this district's retail rate (fee schedule eff. 1/1/2026, not retrievable). Supplier RLCWA charges $9.14/1,000 gal in 2026.",
      "m": null
    },
    "imp": [
      [
        "TTHM (total trihalomethanes)",
        "59.1",
        "ppb",
        "80 (annual avg)",
        "2025",
        "Supplier RLCWA system average; range 18-79.4 ppb. Under the MCL but running close to it."
      ],
      [
        "HAA5 (haloacetic acids)",
        "31.5",
        "ppb",
        "60 (annual avg)",
        "2025",
        "Supplier RLCWA system average; range 9.8-39.4 ppb, well under the MCL."
      ],
      [
        "Lead (90th percentile)",
        "<1",
        "ppb",
        "15 (action…",
        "2025",
        "RLCWA 90th percentile; zero of 32 samples over the action level."
      ],
      [
        "Copper (90th percentile)",
        "0.058",
        "ppm",
        "1.3 (action…",
        "2025",
        "RLCWA 90th percentile, far below the action level."
      ],
      [
        "TTHM (total trihalomethanes)",
        "59.8",
        "ppb",
        "80 (annual avg)",
        "2023",
        "Prior RLCWA result, range 19.2-79.8 ppb; DBPs sit near 60 ppb year after year."
      ],
      [
        "HAA5 (haloacetic acids)",
        "38",
        "ppb",
        "60 (annual avg)",
        "2023",
        "Prior RLCWA result, range 7-48.6 ppb."
      ],
      [
        "PFBA (perfluorobutanoic acid)",
        "0.0051",
        "ppb",
        "no MCL (UCMR5)",
        "2023",
        "PFAS breakdown product detected at the reporting limit in RLCWA water."
      ],
      [
        "Lithium",
        "13.6",
        "ppb",
        "no MCL (UCMR5)",
        "2023",
        "Unregulated; range 11.8-15.4 ppb in RLCWA water."
      ]
    ],
    "proj": [],
    "plan": [],
    "stress": "Wholesale-only: no source of its own, so it inherits any RLCWA or Avon Lake supply problem. Chlorinated Lake Erie water piped far through rural mains keeps TTHM near 60 ppb against an 80 ppb MCL. RLCWA also missed required corrosion-control sampling in July-December 2023.",
    "sew": {
      "s": "Medina County Sanitary Engineering Department runs both this water district and county sanitary sewers (three divisions, roughly 50,000 customers), so it is not a water-only utility. Treatment plant names, capacities and receiving streams were not confirmed.",
      "st": "Not confirmed. No county stormwater utility fee turned up in the sources reviewed, and township-level drainage was not researched for this batch."
    },
    "fun": [
      "This district owns no treatment plant: 46,324 people on 16,845 connections drink entirely purchased water, per EPA's SDWIS record for the system.",
      "RLCWA blends three unlike sources - Lake Erie via Avon Lake, a 1.4-billion-gallon reservoir at New London, and 12 Ashland wells 70 to 300 feet deep.",
      "Its engineers call RLCWA one of the largest rural water systems ever built in the U.S.: about 150,000 people over 520 square miles in five counties.",
      "The Avon Lake plant at the far end of this supply chain has been filtering Lake Erie since 1926, and began selling wholesale to RLCWA in 1975."
    ]
  },
  "zips_served": [
    {
      "zip": "44233",
      "share": 1.0,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44280",
      "share": 0.9843,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44256",
      "share": 0.5606,
      "dominant": true
    },
    {
      "zip": "44275",
      "share": 0.3116,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44212",
      "share": 0.2155,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44215",
      "share": 0.1616,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44254",
      "share": 0.1319,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44273",
      "share": 0.1133,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44253",
      "share": 0.0515,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44281",
      "share": 0.0287,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44333",
      "share": 0.0053,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44321",
      "share": 0.004,
      "dominant": false
    },
    {
      "zip": "44149",
      "share": 0.0037,
      "dominant": false
    }
  ],
  "photo": {
    "url": "/photos/OH5201903.jpg",
    "caption": "Shore scene on Lake Erie at Avon Lake, Ohio",
    "credit": "\"Tichnor Quality Views,\" Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., ",
    "license": "Public domain"
  },
  "url": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH5201903/",
  "api": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/water/OH5201903.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), \"Medina Co/northwest · OH5201903\", https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH5201903/, built 2026-09-16, accessed [date].",
  "schema": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/schema.json"
}