Water system
Bellaire Public Water System
EPA ID OH0700114 · Belmont County · 4,278 people served · owned by a local government
Bellaire Public Water System treats its own water from Ohio River (via bank infiltration wells).
The system's record
- Aquifer
- Ohio River alluvial aquifer (infiltration gallery/wells along the riverbank)
- Water bodies
- Ohio River (via bank infiltration)
- Raw intakes
- Bellaire Infiltration
- Active wells
- 2
- Serves
- 4,278 people · Belmont County
- EPA ID
- OH0700114
Bellaire's water plant and wells sit on the Ohio River bank; supply comes from an infiltration gallery/wells drawing river-influenced groundwater (GU under direct influence of the Ohio River), not deep isolated groundwater.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Bellaire's supply is legally drawn from wells but hydrologically it is the Ohio River: the plant sits on the riverbank and its wells are bank-infiltration wells into an aquifer less than 30 feet deep, and EPA classes…
- The village keeps an emergency interconnection with the Belmont County Water & Sewer District at Klee Crossing in West Bellaire and takes water through it routinely to keep the connection exercised. In 2025 it took 1.95…
- Bellaire was nicknamed 'Glass City' after late-19th-century natural gas discoveries drew glassmakers; Imperial Glass, founded there in 1901, was among the largest handmade glass manufacturers in 20th-century America…
- Because a dry-cleaning solvent plume sits under a four-block stretch of downtown, Bellaire tests its water for volatile organic compounds every month — three times more often than the rules require.
- The big $72 million water-and-sewer program often associated with Bellaire is not the village's: it is the Belmont County Water & Sewer District's, including the district's own new plant on a 2.5-acre site off Ohio 7.
Source: villageofbellaire.orgvillageofbellaire.orgen.wikipedia.org
History6
- 1836Settlement officially founded as 'Bell Air', its name inspired by the Maryland town of the same name; the railroad's arrival in the mid-19th century gave the modern spelling 'Bellaire'.
- 1901-1984Bellaire became a glass-manufacturing hub after late-19th-century natural gas discoveries — the 'Glass City'. Imperial Glass Company, founded there in 1901, was among the largest US handmade glass…
- 2021 (Sept)Village Council gave a first reading to a Source Water Protection Area ordinance aimed at minimizing contamination of the shallow surficial aquifer feeding the village's riverbank wellfield, with a…
- 2023Two air strippers were placed in service by the end of the year to strip tetrachloroethylene ('TCE' in the village's own reporting) from groundwater in a four-block downtown test-well area between…
- 2025…The treatment plant flooded in March 2025; the village bought 950,000 gallons from Belmont County that month. EPA SDWIS records a non-health-based monitoring/reporting violation (Tier 3 public…
- 2025 (Jul)A large water line break led the village to draw a further 650,000 gallons through its Belmont County interconnection.
Source: villageofbellaire.orgen.wikipedia.orgtimesleaderonline.com
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Bellaire's plant at 217 37th Street draws from the Ohio River (SDWIS classes the system as surface water; the village's wells are riverbank infiltration wells and the source water assessment discusses an aquifer less than 30 feet deep). The source watershed is the Upper Ohio Wheeling watershed…
Source: villageofbellaire.orgdata.epa.gov
Water pressure
Not published. No pressure-zone or psi figures appear in the 2025 CCR, the water department page or the codified ordinances.
What it costs
Not published. Bellaire's codified ordinance 923.21 states only that 'Water rates shall be established in the manner as authorized by the Ohio Revised Code'; the actual schedule…
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Disinfection by-product; range 38.3-67.4 ppb; no violation. | 67.4 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Disinfection by-product; range 7.42-16.8 ppb; no violation. | 16.8 ppb | 60 | 2025 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 90th percentile 0.0 ppb in both 2025 monitoring periods. 1 of 40 samples exceeded the 15 ppb action level in Jan-Jun… | 0.0 ppb | 15 (AL) | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) Jan-Jun 2025: 0.0077 ppm; Jul-Dec 2025: 0.00627 ppm. 0 of 40 samples over the action level in both periods. | 0.0077 ppm | 1.3 (AL) | 2025 |
| Chlorine Disinfectant residual; range 1.22-1.88 ppm. | 1.65 ppm | 4.0 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Fluoride Natural deposits plus fluoridation additive; range 0.80-1.30 ppm. | 1.12 ppm | 4 | 2025 |
| Nitrate (as N) Range 0.841-2.36 ppm; no violation. | 2.36 ppm | 10 | 2025 |
| Turbidity Range 0.04-0.20 NTU; 100% of samples below the treatment-technique value and the 0.3 NTU/95% standard; no violation. | 0.20 NTU | 1.0 (TT) | 2025 |
| Total Organic Carbon (removal ratio) Range 1.0-1.0; a value above 1 indicates compliance with TOC removal requirements. Reported as no violation. | 1.0 ratio | TT (must exceed… | 2025 |
| Selenium Discharge from petroleum/metal refineries and mines. | 3.21 ppb | 50 | 2024 |
Source: villageofbellaire.org
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2026 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
3 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 3 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
Projects & plans3
Recent and current work
- TCE air-stripper installation · 2023 · completed
Two air strippers in service by the end of 2023 to remove tetrachloroethylene from groundwater in a four-block downtown test-well area (32nd-36th Streets, SR 7… - Village-wide water meter replacement with service line material inspection · under construction
Mandatory residential meter replacement at no cost to owners, by contractors Fort Steuben Maintenance (41st Street north) and Newman (rest of town and Route…
Source: villageofbellaire.org
Planned or needed
- Lead / galvanized service line replacement · needed
Any service line found to be lead or galvanized steel during the meter-replacement inspections must be reported to Ohio EPA and added to a replacement list. No…
Source: villageofbellaire.org
Supply stress
Ohio EPA's source water assessment rates the aquifer supplying Bellaire's wells as having 'very high susceptibility' to contamination, citing a relatively thin layer of sediment over the aquifer, a significant contaminant source inside the protection area, man-made contaminants already present in the aquifer, and the aquifer's shallow…
Sewers
Sanitary
The village operates its own sanitary sewer system under Chapter 921 of its codified ordinances (which sets a $1.25 per month per dwelling-unit sewer user fee plus usage-based charges for commercial and industrial customers). The treatment plant name, capacity and receiving stream are not published. Note: the Fox Shannon wastewater plant…
Storm
Not documented in available sources.
Source: villageofbellaire.orgwtov9.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
- 43906 · Bellaire59% 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
Bellaire Public Water System does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Bellaire Public Water System.
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
Bellaire Public Water System's own pages: wtov9.com, timesleaderonline.com
Notable facts: villageofbellaire.org, villageofbellaire.org, en.wikipedia.org, wtov9.com
History: villageofbellaire.org, en.wikipedia.org, timesleaderonline.com, villageofbellaire.org
Water quality: villageofbellaire.org
Planned work: villageofbellaire.org
Water pressure: villageofbellaire.org, villageofbellaire.org
Capital projects: villageofbellaire.org
Rates: villageofbellaire.org, villageofbellaire.org
Sewers: villageofbellaire.org, wtov9.com
Treatment: villageofbellaire.org, data.epa.gov
Supply stress: villageofbellaire.org, timesleaderonline.com