{
  "type": "water",
  "pwsid": "OH7400614",
  "name": "Aqua Ohio - Tiffin",
  "county": "Seneca",
  "population": 20279,
  "producer": true,
  "source_class": "river",
  "label": "Sandusky River",
  "bodies": [
    "Sandusky River"
  ],
  "intakes": [
    "Sandusky River"
  ],
  "wells": 5,
  "aquifer": "",
  "notes": "Aqua Ohio's Tiffin system treats surface water drawn directly from the Sandusky River; matches SDWIS SW code.",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.aquawater.com/"
  ],
  "chain": [
    "OH7400614"
  ],
  "plants": [
    {
      "n": "Aqua Ohio - Tiffin Water Treatment Plant",
      "a": "Tiffin, Seneca County, OH (exact street address not verified)",
      "la": 41.1145,
      "lo": -83.178,
      "pt": "approximate",
      "wb": "Sandusky River",
      "src": "Sandusky River, drawn at Aqua Ohio's river intake serving the Tiffin system (plus 5 active wells as backup/blend source); exact intake structure not confirmed",
      "cls": "river",
      "in": [
        {
          "n": "Sandusky River intake",
          "wb": "N/A (surface water, not a well field)",
          "role": "primary",
          "src": "Direct river intake at approximately river mile 41.08, supplying the large majority (~86%) of production; primary source concerns are nitrate, pesticides, algae and ammonia",
          "la": 41.1145,
          "lo": -83.178,
          "pt": "approximate",
          "sh": 86
        },
        {
          "n": "Tiffin wellfield",
          "wb": "Sandusky River valley sand and gravel, adjacent to the river channel",
          "role": "secondary",
          "src": "5 active wells located adjacent to the Sandusky River near the plant; used as blend/backup source, contributing roughly 14% of production, mainly to dilute nitrate from the river intake (5 wells)",
          "la": 41.1145,
          "lo": -83.178,
          "pt": "approximate",
          "sh": 14,
          "wells": [
            "Well 10",
            "Well 21",
            "Well 24",
            "Well 25",
            "Well 26"
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "facts": {
    "hist": [
      [
        "1913",
        "The Great Flood of 1913 on the Sandusky River devastated Tiffin - the same river that supplies the city's drinking water intake."
      ],
      [
        "2003",
        "Ohio EPA completed the source water assessment for the Tiffin system; the source is rated highly susceptible to contamination, with the single rating driven by the surface water intake rather than…"
      ],
      [
        "2012",
        "Aqua Ohio purchased the Tiffin water system from Ohio American Water in May 2012, as part of Aqua America's acquisition of all of American Water's regulated Ohio operations (about 50,730 water…"
      ],
      [
        "2023",
        "Aqua replaced 90-year-old cast iron mains on Grand Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Huss Street with ductile iron - a $1,324,000 contract, part of roughly $3.1 million invested in Tiffin that year."
      ],
      [
        "2025",
        "Aqua Ohio filed PUCO case 25-0594-WW-AIR (June 30, 2025) seeking $13.4 million, or 16.4%, more annual water revenue across its rate-regulated Ohio systems."
      ],
      [
        "2026",
        "PUCO issued its order June 10, 2026, authorizing about $9.5 million rather than the $13.4 million requested and rejecting Aqua's proposed increase to the fixed monthly customer charge; the resulting…"
      ]
    ],
    "treat": "Aqua Ohio treats Sandusky River water at its Tiffin plant, with five groundwater wells supplementing or backing up the river supply. The 2025 CCR documents conventional surface-water treatment: filtration monitored by turbidity (limit 0.3 NTU in 95% of daily samples; Tiffin's highest 2025 reading…",
    "press": "",
    "rate": {
      "g": 15.67,
      "n": "Tiffin falls in Aqua Ohio's PUCO Tariff No. 2 Rate Group 3 (systems formerly served by Ohio American Water, which Aqua bought in May 2012). Effective July 22, 2026 under the…",
      "m": 77.48
    },
    "imp": [
      [
        "Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM)",
        "70.2",
        "ppb",
        "80 ppb MCL",
        "2025",
        "Range of individual detections 20.2-101.2 ppb - individual samples exceeded the MCL value even though the compliance…"
      ],
      [
        "Haloacetic Acids (HAA5)",
        "36.4",
        "ppb",
        "60 ppb MCL",
        "2025",
        "Range 18.6-51.2 ppb."
      ],
      [
        "Nitrate",
        "6.8",
        "ppm",
        "10 ppm MCL",
        "2025",
        "Range 0.14-6.8 ppm; the CCR carries the infant blue-baby-syndrome advisory and warns that levels can rise quickly after…"
      ],
      [
        "Atrazine",
        "0.3",
        "ppb",
        "3 ppb MCL",
        "2025",
        "Range ND-0.3 ppb; row-crop herbicide runoff."
      ],
      [
        "Barium",
        "0.05",
        "ppm",
        "2 ppm MCL",
        "2025",
        "Erosion of natural deposits."
      ],
      [
        "Fluoride",
        "0.9",
        "ppm",
        "4 ppm MCL",
        "2025",
        "Range 0.8-1.0 ppm."
      ],
      [
        "Total Chlorine",
        "1.3",
        "ppm",
        "4 ppm MRDL",
        "2025",
        "Range 1.1-1.3 ppm."
      ],
      [
        "Turbidity",
        "0.15",
        "NTU",
        "Treatment…",
        "2025",
        "Range 0.02-0.15 NTU; 100% of samples met the standard."
      ],
      [
        "Lead (90th percentile)",
        "5.4",
        "ppb",
        "15 ppb action…",
        "2025",
        "0 of 30 samples over the action level."
      ],
      [
        "Copper (90th percentile)",
        "0.16",
        "ppm",
        "1.3 ppm action…",
        "2025",
        "1 of 30 samples exceeded the action level, at 1.4 ppm; the 90th percentile stayed well below it."
      ]
    ],
    "proj": [
      [
        "Grand Avenue / Fifth Avenue / Huss Street water main replacement",
        1324000,
        "2023",
        "completed",
        "Replaced 90-year-old 6- and 10-inch cast iron with 2,550 feet of 8- and 12-inch ductile iron on Grand Ave, a 12-inch on Fifth Ave, and 2,355 feet of 12-inch on…"
      ],
      [
        "Tiffin Water Pollution Control Center capacity upgrade (city project, not Aqua)",
        null,
        "2021",
        "completed",
        "Raised treatable flow from 4 MGD to 13 MGD with a new 80-foot secondary clarifier and a 13-million-gallon equalization basin, under the 2017 long-term control…"
      ]
    ],
    "plan": [
      [
        "AquaStorm high-rate cloth-media filtration at the city's Water Pollution Control Center",
        27000000,
        "2026-2028",
        "planned",
        "Bid awarded to Adena; construction expected to start within months of the mid-2026 council briefing and the system online by July 2028. Treats up to 32 MGD…"
      ],
      [
        "Ongoing Aqua Ohio system investment",
        null,
        "2026",
        "planned",
        "Aqua's 2025 CCR states the company invested nearly $559 million in Ohio water systems from 2015-2025 and plans roughly $61 million statewide in 2026; no…"
      ]
    ],
    "stress": "A single river intake on the Sandusky, backed by five wells, in an agricultural watershed that Ohio EPA rates highly susceptible to contamination - the listed threats include agricultural runoff, construction runoff, oil and gas production, unsewered areas, wastewater discharges, landfills and commercial sources. The pressure shows up in…",
    "sew": {
      "s": "Sanitary sewer and treatment are run by the City of Tiffin's Water Pollution Control Center at 961 N. Water St. - a separate utility from Aqua's water system. Tiffin discharged raw sewage to the Sandusky River until a primary plant was built in 1955; secondary treatment and sludge filtration followed in 1964, a third digester and…",
      "st": "Tiffin has a combined sewer system: stormwater and sanitary flow share pipes, and overflows discharge to the Sandusky River. The long-term control plan targets no more than four combined sewer overflow activations per year, and the city publishes an annual…"
    },
    "fun": [
      "Tiffin is one of the few Ohio cities of its size whose tap water comes from an investor-owned utility: Aqua Ohio bought the system from Ohio American Water in May 2012, so water rates are set by the Public Utilities…",
      "Aqua Ohio's report states plainly that the company does not hold regular public meetings on drinking water quality - customers with concerns are pointed to a call center, the PUCO, or the Ohio Consumers' Counsel.",
      "Individual trihalomethane samples in 2025 reached 101.2 ppb, above the 80 ppb standard, even though the running average that determines compliance came in at 70.2 ppb.",
      "The Sandusky River both supplies Tiffin's intake and receives the city's combined sewer overflows - the wastewater plant's $27 million high-rate filtration project is aimed at cutting those overflows to four a year by…",
      "In a rate case where a 'Seneca' service area appears on the state consumer advocate's chart, that line is Lake Seneca in Williams County, not Tiffin in Seneca County; Tiffin bills under the former Ohio American Water…"
    ],
    "src": {
      "history": [
        "https://prod.aquawater.com/WaterQualityReports/2025/OH/OH7400614.pdf",
        "https://www.essential.co/news-releases/news-release-details/aqua-america-acquires-water-systems-ohio-and-north-carolina",
        "https://www.tiffinohio.gov/news/aqua-replacing-water-main-tiffin",
        "https://www.occ.ohio.gov/factsheet/aqua-ohio-water-rate-increase-25-0594-ww-air"
      ],
      "treatment": [
        "https://prod.aquawater.com/WaterQualityReports/2025/OH/OH7400614.pdf",
        "https://prod.aquawater.com/WaterQualityReports/2024/OH/OH7400614.pdf"
      ],
      "rates": [
        "https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/puco.ohio.gov/empliibrary/files/docketing/tariffs/Water/Aqua%20Ohio%20Inc/PUCO2%20consolidated%20tariff.pdf",
        "https://www.occ.ohio.gov/factsheet/aqua-ohio-water-rate-increase-25-0594-ww-air",
        "https://puco.ohio.gov/be-informed/consumer-topics/aqua-ohio-water-rate-case/"
      ],
      "impurities": [
        "https://prod.aquawater.com/WaterQualityReports/2025/OH/OH7400614.pdf"
      ],
      "projects": [
        "https://www.tiffinohio.gov/news/aqua-replacing-water-main-tiffin",
        "https://www.tiffinohio.gov/departments/wpcc"
      ],
      "planned": [
        "https://tiffinohio.net/posts/tiffin-27m-wastewater-plant-construction-youth-sports-complex/",
        "https://prod.aquawater.com/WaterQualityReports/2025/OH/OH7400614.pdf"
      ],
      "water_stress": [
        "https://prod.aquawater.com/WaterQualityReports/2025/OH/OH7400614.pdf",
        "https://www.tiffinohio.gov/departments/wpcc"
      ],
      "sewer": [
        "https://www.tiffinohio.gov/departments/wpcc",
        "https://tiffinohio.net/posts/tiffin-27m-wastewater-plant-construction-youth-sports-complex/"
      ],
      "fun_facts": [
        "https://prod.aquawater.com/WaterQualityReports/2025/OH/OH7400614.pdf",
        "https://www.essential.co/news-releases/news-release-details/aqua-america-acquires-water-systems-ohio-and-north-carolina",
        "https://www.occ.ohio.gov/factsheet/aqua-ohio-water-rate-increase-25-0594-ww-air",
        "https://tiffinohio.net/posts/tiffin-27m-wastewater-plant-construction-youth-sports-complex/"
      ]
    }
  },
  "zips_served": [
    {
      "zip": "44883",
      "share": 0.6387,
      "dominant": true
    }
  ],
  "photo": {
    "url": "/photos/OH7400614.jpg",
    "caption": "The Tiffin Waterworks at 170 Ella Street in Tiffin, Ohio, which draws from the Sandusky River and local wellfield",
    "credit": "Nyttend",
    "license": "Public domain"
  },
  "url": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH7400614/",
  "api": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/water/OH7400614.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), \"Aqua Ohio - Tiffin · OH7400614\", https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH7400614/, built 2026-09-16, accessed [date].",
  "schema": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/schema.json"
}