Butler Co. Water District 2

• Hamilton's tap water took the gold medal for Best Municipal Water at the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting's 25th running — the origin of the city's 'world's best water' billing.
• BCWS reported no lead, galvanized-requiring-replacement, or unknown-material service lines at all across 41,354 connections — unusual for a system this size.
• Hamilton disinfects with chlorine dioxide rather than plain chlorine; its 2025 residual of 660 ppb ran at 83% of the 800 ppb federal maximum.
• Some Butler County taps blend aquifer water from Hamilton's wells with Ohio River water from Cincinnati, so what you drink depends on which intertie feeds your street.

• 1884The City of Hamilton began owning and operating its own water utility; it remains Butler County Water & Sewer's principal supplier today.
• 1913The March 1913 Great Miami River flood devastated Hamilton and led to the Miami Conservancy District's regional flood-control system.
• 2015Hamilton's tap water took the gold medal for Best Municipal Water at the 25th Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting.
• 2025BCWS reported its lead service line inventory complete: no lead, galvanized-requiring-replacement or unknown-material lines among 41,354 connections.

How it is treated

Buys all water finished. Hamilton pulls the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer via 21 deep wells, disinfecting with chlorine dioxide; GCWW adds Ohio River water treated by settling, filtration, a very large GAC plant and UV. BCWS re-chlorinates and adds soda ash.

Water pressure

not published — BCWS says pump stations and storage tanks hold pressure through peak demand, but no system psi figure appears in its published reports.

Not confirmed. The $3.36/1,000 gal + $4.53 figure (eff. Jan 1, 2023) is tiered by lift station, i.e. sewer service; no BCWS water rate schedule was located.

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.

4 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 4 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).

EPA compliance record · Hamilton Public Water System (treats the water)

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 2 ppb in 2024 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

2 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 2 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).

Recent and current work

• Lead service line inventory and field verification · 2025 · completed
  Records review plus 395 field verifications across 41,354 connections found no lead or galvanized service lines on either the utility or private side.

Planned or needed

• Upper Mill Creek WRF equalization system and sludge drying facility · $21 million · planned
  Roughly $21M of upgrades at one of BCWS's two regional wastewater reclamation plants.
• Pheasant Hills water main replacement · $1.4 million · planned
  About 3,886 ft of 6-inch and 3,895 ft of 10-inch water main.
• West Chester Township sewer cleaning and inspection · planned
  Systemwide cleaning and inspection of sewers in the district's largest township.
• Water service line replacement contracts · 2026-2030 · planned
  Multiple service line replacement contracts programmed through 2030 in the county capital plan.

Ohio EPA rates both sources highly susceptible: the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer has no protective clay cap, a shallow water table and nearby contaminant sources, while the Ohio River leg is open to spills — GCWW found Cryptosporidium in 1 of 4 raw samples in 2025, none in treated water.

Sanitary

BCWS runs the sanitary sewers, serving about 100,000 people through five plants — regional LeSourdsville and Upper Mill Creek plus satellites Wade Mill, New Miami and Queen Acres — treating about 20 MGD against 33 MGD of combined permitted discharge. The City of Hamilton runs its own system.

Storm

Not confirmed — no public source located on whether storm sewers here are separate or combined, or on any stormwater fee in West Chester Township or the City of Hamilton.

Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.