Leetonia Village

• Salem blends surface water from two on-stream reservoirs with groundwater from its wells specifically to hold disinfection by-product levels down.
• A raw-water pump installed at the Cold Run Creek station in 1982 was still doing duty more than three decades later, repaired once in 2000.
• The utilities commission once considered ceramic-coating the pump impellers just to squeeze more life out of the aging equipment.
• Some of Salem's water mains are late-1800s pipe — as the distribution foreman put it in 2024, 'it's just old pipe.' Replacing the worst of it would cost about $110 million, so the city patches as it goes.
• To fight algae, Salem has floated solar-powered SolarBee mixers on its reservoirs and considered stocking white amurs — herbivorous fish hired to eat the problem.

Source: morningjournalnews.comsalemnews.netsalemnews.net

• 1982A raw-water pump was installed at the Cold Run Creek pump station; it was repaired in 2000 and by 2016 needed replacement, with a bowl assembly estimated at $24,000.
• 2016Utilities Commission accepted a $6,760 proposal from Layne Well Driller to drill, sample and convert an exploratory well east of the Cold Run Creek pump station into a monitoring well with a locking…
• 2016Officials cited Ohio EPA scrutiny of disinfection by-products in the reservoir surface water as the reason to lean more on the city's wells, noting subsurface water helps hold by-product levels down.
• 2021Utilities Commission and Council approved a multi-year water rate overhaul: the minimum rose $9 to $19.30 for the first 200 cubic feet in January 2022, with 5.5% usage-rate increases in 2022 through…
• 2022A consent decree between Salem and the EPA completed its 30-day comment period without objection, concluding litigation against the city as of November 2022.
• 2024Summer water line breaks on aging mains — 'it's just old pipe, it's late 1800s pipe there' — led the commission to price full replacement of the oldest lines at roughly $110 million and adopt a…

Source: morningjournalnews.commorningjournalnews.comsalemnews.net

How it is treated

Raw water is a blend of surface water impounded in two on-stream reservoirs on Cold Run Creek — East Cold Run Reservoir (Salem City Lake) and Spring Valley Reservoir — together with groundwater from the city's wells, blended in part to keep disinfection by-product levels down. The city has also…

Source: morningjournalnews.commorningjournalnews.com

Water pressure

Not published in any reachable source.

Salem bills in hundreds of cubic feet (CCF); 1 ccf = 748 gallons, so any per-1,000-gallon figure must divide by 0.748. Verified schedule: before 2022 the in-city minimum was…

Source: morningjournalnews.commorningjournalnews.comsalemnews.net

EPA compliance record · Leetonia Village

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 16.4 ppb in 2025 (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).

EPA compliance record · Salem City (treats the water)

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 9.4 ppb in 2025 (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

• Water treatment plant improvements, Phase One · $4.5 million · 2022 · under construction
  Total estimated cost approximately $4.5 million. Contractor A.P. O'horo was executing the work as of October 2024, when a design change was pending to enlarge…
• Governor's Office of Appalachia grant for water plant work · $221,094 · 2022 · completed
  Grant secured by the Salem Utilities Commission; the balance of the plant program is funded through an Ohio EPA Drinking Water Assistance Fund loan of up to…
• East Cold Run Reservoir rip-rap project · $500,000 · 2022 · under construction
  Originally estimated at $500,000, the cost roughly doubled; a $236,000 Governor's Office of Appalachia grant covers part, with the remainder from department…
• SolarBee installation in reservoirs · 2022 · planned
  Three units in East Cold Run Reservoir and two in Spring Valley Reservoir, pending final Ohio EPA engineer review, to control algae. No cost published.
• Cold Run Creek exploratory/monitoring well conversion · $6,760 · 2016
  Layne Well Driller contract accepted to drill, sample and convert the well; completion is not confirmed in any source reviewed.
• Wastewater treatment plant anaerobic digester cleaning, Phase Three · $250,000 · 2024 · completed
  Estimated at $75,000 but came in near $250,000 — an extra $175,000 — because the digester held about three times more material than engineers anticipated.
• Wastewater treatment plant digester lids and controls building · 2024 · under construction
  Primary lid being welded in place and secondary lid painted and ready as of October 2024; a new control system building was under construction with ventilation…
• Highland Avenue water tank painting · 2016
  Underway as of a 2016 news report; no completion or cost confirmed.

Source: morningjournalnews.commorningjournalnews.comsalemnews.net

Planned or needed

• New water source search · proposed
  The city has periodically studied alternative or supplemental sources, citing reservoir capacity and water-quality (algae and disinfection by-product)…
• Replacement of oldest water mains · $110 million · 2024 · needed
  The utilities department priced full replacement of its oldest, most break-prone lines — many over 100 years old, some dating to the late 1800s — at roughly…
• Algae control measures (white amurs, additional SolarBee units) · proposed
  Management proposed stocking white amurs (herbivorous fish) and acquiring more SolarBee solar-powered pump units to control reservoir algae. No cost published.

Source: salemnews.netmorningjournalnews.com

Salem's supply leans on two relatively small on-stream reservoirs subject to algae blooms and disinfection by-product formation, which has pushed the utility to blend in groundwater and to repeatedly study new sources. In August 2024 the city lake stood about 1 foot 10 inches below normal; East Cold Run Reservoir remained clear but…

Source: salemnews.netmorningjournalnews.commorningjournalnews.com

Sanitary

Salem operates its own wastewater treatment plant, which underwent Phase IA improvements around 2016 and, through 2024, anaerobic digester cleaning and rehabilitation (Phase Three digester cleaning ran to roughly $250,000 against a $75,000 estimate) plus new digester lids and a control system building. A consent decree between the city…

Storm

Not published. No separate stormwater utility or fee was found for Salem in any reachable source.

Source: salemnews.netsalemnews.netmorningjournalnews.com

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