Water system
Bluffton Village
EPA ID OH0200112 · Allen County · 4,125 people served · owned by a local government
Bluffton Village buys its water from Ottawa Village.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Blanchard River
- Raw intakes
- Reservoir
Blanchard River - Serves
- 4,393 people · Putnam County
- EPA ID
- OH6900711
Confirms SDWIS: village draws river water into an on-site holding/intake reservoir before treatment; Blanchard River is also the source Ottawa itself supplies onward to Glandorf, Bluffton, and Miller City.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Bluffton stopped making its own drinking water: all seven village wells are listed inactive in EPA's federal inventory, the last five deactivated between 5 May and 3 June 2016, right after a two-and-a-half-year run of…
- The creek that runs through town is not the town's water. Riley Creek flows through Bluffton's 3.78 square miles, but the tap water is Blanchard River water treated by the Village of Ottawa and piped in.
- Bluffton's water is softened before it arrives - Ottawa's plant runs a lime-soda ash softening process, so the treatment decisions that shape Bluffton's tap water are made in another town's plant.
History3
- 2013-2016Ten consecutive quarterly total trihalomethane (TTHM) MCL violations recorded in EPA SDWIS, from the quarter ending 2013-12-31 through the quarter ending 2016-03-31, with reported values of 0.083 to…
- 2016SDWIS shows Bluffton's remaining village wells deactivated between 2016-05-05 and 2016-06-03 (Wells 1-5 and the North/South WTP wells; two earlier wells had gone inactive in 2009 and 2010), leaving…
- 2021Consumer confidence report published for Bluffton reports water purchased from the Village of Ottawa off the Blanchard River, a highest single turbidity reading of 0.14 NTU, full compliance with TOC…
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Bluffton treats no water of its own. EPA SDWIS lists the system's primary source as purchased surface water through the facility 'CC OTTAWA VILLAGE', a permanent consecutive connection from the Village of Ottawa (PWSID OH6900711). Ottawa draws from the Blanchard River through a river intake plus an…
Source: data.epa.govdata.epa.govdata.epa.gov
Water pressure
Not published. No distribution pressure figure appears in any retrievable village document.
What it costs
No rate schedule found. The Village of Bluffton has no official website that resolves (blufftonohio.gov, blufftonohio.org, villageofbluffton.com fail DNS; blufftonohio.com is a…
Water quality & impurities2
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turbidity Highest single reading reported in the Ottawa-treated water Bluffton buys; 100% of samples met the limit. | 0.14 NTU | Treatment… | 2021 |
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) Historical. Highest quarterly value in the 2013-2016 MCL violation series, from the era when Bluffton still treated its… | 0.104 mg/L | 0.080 | 2015 |
Source: blufftonicon.comdata.epa.gov
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2023 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2016Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.083 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
- 2015Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.104 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
EPA's count of 5 includes 3 repeat quarterly violations of the problems listed.
2 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 2 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
EPA compliance record · Ottawa Village (treats the water)
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2023 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2026Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.086 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · known
24 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 23 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
Supply stress
Bluffton's supply is a single purchased connection with no active local source of its own - every village well is listed inactive in EPA's federal inventory. Bluffton's 2021 consumer confidence report describes the Blanchard River source as a surface water susceptible to contamination, with potential contaminant sources in the protection…
Source: blufftonicon.comdata.epa.gov
Sewers
Sanitary
Not published in any retrievable source. The village operates utility billing (SDWIS lists 1,505 service connections) but no sanitary sewer rate, plant description or NPDES detail was reachable without a working village website.
Storm
Not published in any retrievable source.
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.
Main supplier in 1 ZIP code
Serves
Main water supplier in 1 ZIP code
- 45817 · Bluffton60% of residents
Population-weighted resident shares; a ZIP code can have more than one system on record. Recomputed from each ZIP's own system list, not from the map's cached footprint.
Buys from · Sells to
Bluffton Village buys its water from Ottawa Village.
No other system is on record buying water from Bluffton Village.
Photograph
On the map
Show this system's territory on the map — 1 ZIP code in all.
Sources
U.S. EPA SDWIS and Community Water System Service Area Boundaries (v3, 2026), Ohio EPA primacy data, 2020 census blocks: the system serving most residents, traced through purchases to the treating utility; Ohio EPA 2023 Sewer and Water Rate Survey (Ohio State, May 2025) for household bills; Ohio EPA DEFA loan awards since 2016 for the loans paragraph · EPA SDWIS · EPA service area boundaries · Ohio EPA drinking water · Ohio EPA rate survey
Notable facts: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov, en.wikipedia.org, data.epa.gov
History: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov, blufftonicon.com
Water quality: blufftonicon.com, data.epa.gov
Treatment: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
Supply stress: blufftonicon.com, data.epa.gov