Water system
Berea City
EPA ID OH1800111 · Cuyahoga County · 18,789 people served · owned by a local government
Berea City treats its own water from East Branch Rocky River.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Rocky River (East Branch)
- Raw intakes
- Berea Branch Rocky
- Serves
- 18,789 people · Cuyahoga County
- EPA ID
- OH1800111
Sole intake is on the East Branch of the Rocky River; no wells reported.
About this area's water
Did you know
- In 1984 Berea's plant was the first drinking water plant in Ohio to disinfect with ozone. The ozone is long gone, replaced by activated carbon filtration and ultraviolet light.
- Berea makes its own water — about 2.1 million gallons a day — in a city that calls itself the 'Grindstone Capital of the World' for the sandstone quarries that made it, and it is one of only a handful of Cuyahoga County…
- When the river will not do, the plant switches to Coe Lake, a lake in a city park, as its raw water source.
- Berea started pumping water in 1898 mainly to stop the town burning down.
- The city publishes a detailed annual water quality report but no water rate schedule at all — customers get a quarterly bill and are pointed to a separate agency, NEORSD, for the sewer half of it.
History6
- 1898Berea begins pumping water, prompted by a series of destructive fires.
- 1920sWater treatment processes introduced at the plant to prevent waterborne disease.
- 1980sPlant modernization led by Dr. Dimiter Ramadanoff.
- 1984Berea becomes the first drinking water plant in Ohio to use ozonation for disinfection; ozone has since been replaced by activated carbon filtration and ultraviolet light.
- 2014Ultraviolet disinfection added, approved by Ohio EPA to inactivate cryptosporidium.
- 2017City begins a voluntary corrosion control study following national attention to lead in drinking water.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Berea owns and operates its own surface-water treatment plant in downtown Berea, average production about 2.1 million gallons per day. Raw water is drawn from the East Branch of the Rocky River, with Coe Lake available as an alternate source; a backup interconnection with Cleveland Water exists and…
Source: cityofberea.orgcityofberea.orgcityofberea.org
Water pressure
Not published. No CCR, city page or Ohio EPA record reviewed gives a system psi figure or a pressure-zone map.
What it costs
Not published anywhere retrievable. Berea bills water quarterly (three months of usage per bill), but the Water Department page, the Water Billing page and the payment FAQ all…
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range of detections 27.5-106.1 ppb — individual samples exceeded the 80 ppb standard, but compliance is judged on a… | 64.2 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Range 6.0-18.5 ppb. 2023: 13.5 ppb (range 6.0-17.2). | 12.2 ppb | 60 | 2025 |
| Total Chlorine Range 0.91-1.36 ppm. | 1.27 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Nitrate Range 0.5-6.2 ppm — the highest single result reached 62% of the MCL. The CCR carries the blue-baby-syndrome advisory… | 6.2 ppm | 10 | 2025 |
| Fluoride Range 0.76-1.24 ppm. | 1.24 ppm | 4 | 2025 |
| Turbidity Range 0.03-0.230 NTU. Turbidity is the performance check on the filters for a surface-water plant. | 0.23 (highest)… NTU | 0.3 (TT) | 2025 |
| Total Organic Carbon (removal ratio) Range 1.85-3.45; a value above 1 means the plant is meeting its required TOC removal. TOC is the precursor material… | 2.08 ratio | TT (value must… | 2025 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples above the action level. 2023 result was <2 ug/L. | 2.6 ppb | 15 (AL) | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples above the action level. 2023: 0.0170 ppm. | 0.099 ppm | 1.3 (AL) | 2025 |
| Lithium Quarterly UCMR 5 results: 11 (Jan), 9.4 (Apr), 8.8 (Jul), 8.3 (Oct) ug/L against a minimum reporting level of 9 ug/L. | 8.3-11 ug/L | unregulated… | 2024 |
Source: cityofberea.orgcityofberea.org
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2019Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.082 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
3 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 3 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
Projects & plans2
Planned or needed
- Replacement of aging water mains installed in the 1950s · needed
The Water Plant page names this the department's major priority, attributing discolored water and frequent breaks to the 1950s-era mains. No cost, schedule or… - Lead service line inventory — unknown-material follow-up · under construction
Letters to residents whose service lines are designated 'unknown' go out in September 2026, offering a self-identification form or a city inspection; results…
Source: cityofberea.orgcityofberea.org
Supply stress
Berea is one of the very few Cuyahoga County communities that still makes its own water rather than buying from Cleveland, and its entire supply is a small urban stream. Wikipedia's account is that the East Branch of the Rocky River provides the supply 'for most of the year' — the city's own material confirms Coe Lake as the alternate…
Sewers
Sanitary
Sanitary sewage is handled by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. Berea's own Water Billing page tells customers that NEORSD sets and bills wastewater rates and links directly to NEORSD's rate page and summer sprinkling program, confirming NEORSD membership from a city source rather than an inference. Which NEORSD treatment plant…
Storm
NEORSD's Regional Stormwater Management Program covers Berea, and the city's Water Billing page links to it directly; NEORSD bills the stormwater fee alongside the wastewater charge. The city's own storm water pages focus on local drainage and rain gardens…
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
- 44017 · Berea96% 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
Berea City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Berea City.
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
Berea City's own pages: bereaohio.com
Notable facts: cityofberea.org, en.wikipedia.org, cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org
History: cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org
Water quality: cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org
Planned work: cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org
Rates: cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org, neorsd.org
Sewers: cityofberea.org, neorsd.org, neorsd.org
Treatment: cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org
Supply stress: cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org, cityofberea.org, en.wikipedia.org