Water system
Minster Village
EPA ID OH0600412 · Auglaize County · 3,025 people served · owned by a local government
Minster Village treats its own water from Groundwater wells (8 wells).
The system's record
- Active wells
- 8
- Serves
- 3,025 people · Auglaize County
- EPA ID
- OH0600412
About this area's water
Did you know
- At $72.00 a quarter for 22,500 gallons, Minster has the lowest water bill of the 71 jurisdictions in the 2026 rate survey it publishes - less than half the $172.15 survey average and about a sixth of the $433.65 high.
- A 90-to-100-foot slab of glacial till separates the ground surface from Minster's aquifer, and the wells are cased through more than 90 feet of it, which is why Ohio EPA calls the source low-susceptibility.
- The village's own water quality report spells the buried valley its wells tap the "Taeys River Valley"; the preglacial river is normally spelled Teays.
- Minster's sewage plant is built for 1.75 million gallons a day in a village of about 3,000 people, because it also takes industrial flow - the village is home to a Dannon yogurt plant described as one of the largest in…
- How many wells Minster has depends on who you ask: five in the 2025 water quality report, seven on the village's water department page, and eight active wells in EPA's facility inventory.
Source: irp.cdn-website.comirp.cdn-website.comen.wikipedia.org
History6
- 1832Settlement platted as Stallostown, after founder Francis J. Stallo.
- 1836Renamed Minster after Muenster in Westphalia, reflecting the German Catholic settlers.
- 1840sThe Miami and Erie Canal reached Minster, opening it to canal-borne trade.
- 1848Minster passed from Mercer County to the newly created Auglaize County.
- 1878A rail branch line reached Minster from St. Marys; the Nickel Plate Road took it over in 1922 and freight service ran until the late 1960s.
- 2025The village held an unconditional license to operate its water system and reported no MCL or other water-quality-standard violation, per its own consumer confidence report.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Groundwater from bedrock wells drawing on a carbonate aquifer that the village's CCR places in the "Taeys River Valley" (the usual spelling of the preglacial valley is Teays). Water sits more than 40 feet below the surface and the wells are cased to more than 90 feet. Sources disagree on how many…
Source: irp.cdn-website.comminsteroh.comdata.epa.gov
Water pressure
No psi figure is published. Distribution pressure is carried by high-service pumps and the two elevated storage tanks (250,000 and 750,000 gallons) listed as active in EPA's…
Source: minsteroh.comdata.epa.gov
What it costs
$3.20 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $24 a month for water.
$72.00 per quarter for 22,500 gallons (3,000 cubic feet) of water only, per the 2026 annual rate survey the village posts (rates effective March 1, 2026) - the lowest of the 71…
Source: irp.cdn-website.comminsteroh.com
Water quality & impurities6
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fluoride Range of detections 0.593. The CCR attributes it to the fluoride-bearing minerals in western Ohio's carbonate… | 0.593 ppm | 4 (MCL) | 2023 |
| TTHM (total trihalomethanes) Range of detections 15.5-17.6; chlorination byproduct, well under the MCL. | 17.6 ppb | 80 (MCL) | 2025 |
| Total chlorine Range of detections 0.61-1.26; residual disinfectant. | 0.95 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 10 samples over the action level. EPA's lead and copper rule dataset records Minster's 90th-percentile lead as… | <2.0 ppb | 15 (action… | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 10 samples over the action level. | 0.100 ppm | 1.3 (action… | 2025 |
| Nickel (unregulated) Monitored but not regulated; below the advisory level. | 35.48 ppb | no MCL; 100 ppb… | 2017 |
Source: irp.cdn-website.comdata.epa.gov
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
1 violation of any kind logged since 2020: 1 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Supply stress
Ohio EPA rates the aquifer serving Minster as having low susceptibility to contamination: a 90-to-100-foot confining layer of glacial till lies between the ground surface and the carbonate aquifer, and the village's wells are cased to more than 90 feet below the land surface. The village keeps an emergency interconnection with New Bremen…
Sewers
Sanitary
The village owns and operates its own wastewater treatment plant at 155 West First Street, able to treat up to 1.75 million gallons a day of combined domestic and industrial flow; it processed roughly 1.36 MGD on average during 2019. The process is an extended-aeration orbital system: screening, equalization, primary settling, extended…
Storm
Not documented on the village's site. No dedicated stormwater fee or recurring flooding problem was found in the sources checked.
Source: minsteroh.com
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
- 45865 · Minster59% 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
Minster Village does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Minster Village.
What the records show about Minster Village
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Minster Village as owned by a local government. It has 1,365 service connections and serves 3,025 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
EPA's record says it has substantially implemented source water protection under Ohio's program, dating the program from 2025. Its office telephone on EPA's record is 419-628-3497.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Minster Village: aeration, corrosion control, cartridge filtration, chlorine disinfection, reverse osmosis, and sand or media filtration.
The list is what each system registered with EPA for treatment plants EPA still shows as active, and it can lag a plant upgrade.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) treatment table (EPA Envirofacts, pulled September 2026).
Violations
EPA's record shows no health-based violations for Minster Village since 2015.
EPA logs 1 violation of any kind since 2020: 1 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) violation records: health-based violations with compliance periods beginning in 2015 or later, all violations from 2020 or later (EPA Envirofacts, pulled September 2026).
Lead and copper at the tap
In the sampling period ending December 2025, the 90th-percentile lead result at Minster Village was 0 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027. A result of 0 means at least nine in ten of the homes sampled had no lead detected.
EPA has 4 sampling periods on file for Minster Village since 2016, the first ending in 2016; no period was above 10 ppb.
Every water system has to inventory its service lines, the pipes from the main to each building. In the inventory Minster Village sent EPA, 1,343 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 29 |
| Unknown material | 1 |
| Not lead | 1,313 |
| All lines | 1,343 |
Systems sample taps in the homes most likely to have lead pipes or solder. The 90th-percentile result is the level nine in ten of the sampled homes were at or below. Lead comes mostly from service lines and house plumbing, not the source water, so a low result for the system does not clear an old house.
EPA's dashboard status for this inventory: reported all required service line types.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) lead and copper 90th-percentile results (EPA Envirofacts), sampling periods ending 2016 or later; EPA's service line inventory dashboard, Ohio's 2026 Q2 submission.
PFAS
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Minster Village (latest sample September 2020). Not one of the six PFAS tested (PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX and PFBS) was detected.
PFAS are the 'forever chemicals' from firefighting foam, plating shops and non-stick coatings. Results are for water leaving the plant, not your tap.
Source: EPA UCMR 5 occurrence data (final release, August 2026); Ohio EPA statewide PFAS sampling, 2019 to 2021, and its sampling status map.
Disinfection byproducts
Chlorine that disinfects water also reacts with organic matter to form byproducts. Two groups have federal limits: total trihalomethanes (TTHM, 80 µg/L) and five haloacetic acids (HAA5, 60 µg/L), judged on running yearly averages at each sampling site.
For TTHM, the average of Minster Village's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 8 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 22.9 µg/L and the highest single sample was 33.5 µg/L, from 15 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 0 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 4.1 µg/L and the highest single sample was 8.1 µg/L, from 15 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 8 µg/L (2019) | 22.9 µg/L | 33.5 µg/L | 15 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 0 µg/L | 4.1 µg/L | 8.1 µg/L | 15 |
A yearly average of 0 means nothing was detected in that year's samples. EPA's file stops at 2019; Ohio EPA's Drinking Water Watch has newer results.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, distribution-system samples (non-detects counted as zero).
Nitrate, arsenic and radioactivity
Nitrate: the highest of 8 samples was 0.19 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2013; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 0.14 mg/L. No sample was over the limit of 10 mg/L. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants.
Arsenic was not detected in 2 samples (limit 10 µg/L).
| Contaminant | Samples | Highest result | Limit | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 8 | 0.19 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 2 | not detected | 10 µg/L | 0 |
Measured in finished water: at the plant's entry points and in the distribution system; raw well and intake samples are left out. Non-detects count as zero.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Solvents and fuels
EPA's file holds results for all six solvent and fuel compounds it checked. Benzene, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, and vinyl chloride were not detected in 4 samples each.
| Compound | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benzene | 5 µg/L | 4 | 0 of 4 | not detected | 0 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 5 µg/L | 4 | 0 of 4 | not detected | 0 |
| 1,2-dichloroethane | 5 µg/L | 4 | 0 of 4 | not detected | 0 |
| Trichloroethylene (TCE) | 5 µg/L | 4 | 0 of 4 | not detected | 0 |
| Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) | 5 µg/L | 4 | 0 of 4 | not detected | 0 |
| Vinyl chloride | 2 µg/L | 4 | 0 of 4 | not detected | 0 |
"Not detected" means the lab's result was below what its method can measure, not that the compound is absent. Non-detects count as zero in the highest-result column.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Farm chemicals and metals
EPA's file holds results for 8 of the nine herbicides and metals it checked. Not detected: atrazine, alachlor, chromium, cadmium, barium, mercury, selenium, and thallium, in 2 samples each.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Chromium | Metal | 100 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Cadmium | Metal | 5 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Barium | Metal | 2,000 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Selenium | Metal | 50 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Thallium | Metal | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
Non-detects count as zero in the highest-result column.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Bacteria in the pipes
From 2012 to 2019, 0 of 459 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Minster Village tested positive (0%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 50 did. E. coli was never found in the 459 samples tested for it.
A positive coliform test is a warning sign, not a violation by itself. E. coli is a sign that human or animal waste may have reached the water. Coliform counts are routine samples only; E. coli counts include repeat samples.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, distribution-system presence/absence tests for total coliform and E. coli.
Fluoride
The Ohio Department of Health's report to the CDC (My Water's Fluoride) says Minster Village has fluoride from natural sources, but at a level below what is recommended for preventing tooth decay, and does not adjust it. The level it reports is 0.6 mg/L.
EPA's treatment table lists no fluoridation step at Minster Village.
Measured fluoride: every sample at the plant's entry points in 2017 was below the 0.5 mg/L reporting limit; detected samples in earlier years ran at 0.22 mg/L across 2 samples in 2012 to 2019.
The recommended level for preventing tooth decay is 0.7 mg/L; the federal limit is 4 mg/L. The treatment list is what each system registered with EPA and can lag a plant upgrade.
Source: CDC My Water's Fluoride (fluoridation status as reported by the Ohio Department of Health, fetched September 2026); EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) treatment table; EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, entry-point fluoride samples.
Water and sewer bills
Ohio EPA's 2023 rate survey puts the water bill at Minster Village for a household using 5,000 gallons a month at $189 a year, about $16 a month.
The sewer bill in the same survey is $306 a year at 5,000 gallons a month.
| Use | Water, per year | Sewer, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 gallons a month | $126 | $201 |
| 5,000 gallons a month | $189 | $306 |
| 8,000 gallons a month | $265 | $432 |
The survey lists it as “Minster”. These are inside-city rates and annual bills at the use shown.
Source: Ohio EPA 2023 Sewer and Water Rate Survey (Ohio State University, May 2025).
How well the service area is mapped
EPA estimated the service area of Minster Village with a computer model rather than drawing it from the utility's map, so its edges are approximate.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 3,098 residents are inside the boundary, 102% of the 3,025 people Minster Village reports serving.
The resident count is an estimate from 2020 Census ZIP-code populations, not a count of customers.
Source: EPA Service Area Boundaries; resident estimate by this atlas from ZIP-code overlap.
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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH0600412 (EPA ECHO).
Notable facts: irp.cdn-website.com, irp.cdn-website.com, en.wikipedia.org, minsteroh.com
History: en.wikipedia.org, irp.cdn-website.com
Water quality: irp.cdn-website.com, data.epa.gov
Water pressure: minsteroh.com, data.epa.gov
Rates: irp.cdn-website.com, minsteroh.com
Sewers: minsteroh.com
Treatment: irp.cdn-website.com, minsteroh.com, data.epa.gov
Supply stress: irp.cdn-website.com, minsteroh.com, en.wikipedia.org
