Water system
Cambridge, City Of
EPA ID OH3000111 · Guernsey County · 10,520 people served · owned by a local government
Cambridge, City Of treats its own water from Wills Creek via Cambridge Reservoir + Wills Creek direct intake.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Wills Creek, Cambridge Reservoir
- Raw intakes
- Cambridge Reservoir
Wills Creek - Serves
- 10,520 people · Guernsey County
- EPA ID
- OH3000111
Two named own intakes confirm the SDWIS hypothesis: an off-stream Cambridge Reservoir plus a direct Wills Creek intake (both surface water, not groundwater); Senecaville (Seneca) Lake, further upstream in the Wills Creek watershed, is not the utility's own supply source.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Cambridge sells more water than it drinks: about 10,360 people are served directly, but wholesale deliveries to the Western Guernsey Regional Water District and the Guernsey County Water Department bring the combined…
- The city keeps an emergency interconnection with the village of Byesville; it was not needed at all during 2024.
- The 2024 CCR reports 2023 average hardness of 305 mg/L, or 17.82 grains per gallon — hard water, typical of the region's limestone and shale geology.
- There is a self-serve bulk water vending station on Oxford Avenue for anyone hauling water to fill a pool or supplement a private well; you need a vending card from the utilities office.
- The Lead and Copper Rule service line inventory is not online — you have to go to the water treatment plant at 1700 Burgess Ave to look up what your service line is made of.
Source: cambridgeoh.org
History6
- 1798A ferry was established where Zane's Trace crossed Wills Creek, at the site that became Cambridge.
- 1803The first bridge authorized by the legislature of the Northwest Territory was built across Wills Creek here.
- 1998The Cambridge area experienced massive flooding in late June.
- 2005Ohio EPA completed the source water assessment still cited in the city's CCR, finding the Wills Creek supply susceptible to leaking underground storage facilities, oil and gas wells, mining runoff…
- 2023Ohio BUILDS Round 5 awarded the city $3,834,975 in July for waterline and service improvements including lead line removal and elimination of dead-end mains.
- 2024The city held an unconditional Ohio EPA license to operate, reported no monitoring, reporting or treatment technique violations, and recorded zero positive total coliform results on 120 samples.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgcambridgeoh.orgcontent.govdelivery.com
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
The 2024 CCR does not publish a step-by-step treatment train. What it documents is a conventional surface-water plant at 1700 Burgess Ave operating under the turbidity treatment technique (100% of 2024 samples met the standard; highest reading 0.22 NTU) and TOC removal requirements, with fluoride…
Source: cambridgeoh.org
Water pressure
No system-wide psi figure is published. The CCR's boil-order FAQ notes that Ohio EPA recommends issuing a boil order any time distribution pressure falls below 20 psi — a…
Source: cambridgeoh.org
What it costs
Cambridge does not publish its water or sewer rate schedule online. The Utilities Office page states only that rates are available upon request; the office is at 828 Wheeling…
Source: cambridgeoh.org
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range 35.5-91.3 ppb across sites — individual samples exceeded 80 ppb even though the compliance average did not. No… | 63.3 ppb | 80 (MCL) | 2024 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Range 27.6-59.2 ppb; running close to the limit. No violation. | 51.2 ppb | 60 (MCL) | 2024 |
| Lead (90th percentile) Sampled at customer taps 6/1/24-9/3/24; 0 of 60 samples exceeded the action level; range 0-3.36 ppb. | 1.04 ppb | 15 (action… | 2024 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 60 samples exceeded the action level; range 0.00484-0.0659 ppm. | 0.0372 ppm | 1.3 (action… | 2024 |
| Nitrate Range 0-0.13 ppm; fertilizer runoff and natural deposits. | 0.13 ppm | 10 (MCL) | 2024 |
| Fluoride Range 0.80-1.25 ppm; added for dental health. | 1.01 ppm | 4 (MCL) | 2024 |
| Barium Naturally occurring; also drilling wastes and metal refinery discharge — relevant in a county with oil and gas activity. | 0.042 ppm | 2 (MCL) | 2024 |
| PFOA (UCMR5) Average of 0.0055 ug/L (5.5 ng/L), range 0.0054-0.0056 — above the 4 ng/L federal PFOA standard adopted in 2024, whose… | 0.0055 ug/L | no MCL applies… | 2024 |
| Other PFAS (UCMR5: PFOS, PFHxA… PFBA averaged 0.0038 ug/L; PFOS, PFHxA, GenX and PFPeA each averaged 0.0004 ug/L with maxima of 0.0011-0.0013 ug/L. | 0.0004-0.0038 ug/L | no MCL (UCMR5… | 2024 |
| Lithium (UCMR5) Range 0-7.14 ug/L; naturally occurring and can concentrate in brine waters. | 2.38 ug/L | no MCL (UCMR5… | 2024 |
Source: cambridgeoh.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:
- 2019Ground Water Rule · treatment technique violation · returned to compliance
- 2017Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.084 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
- 2016Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.081 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
Projects & plans2
Recent and current work
- Citywide waterline and service improvements with lead line removal · $3.8 million · 2023 · planned
Ohio BUILDS Round 5 grant awarded July 2023 for improvements to waterlines and services on several streets, including lead line removal and elimination of… - Guernsey County sewer expansion and improvements in Cambridge (Beech Meadows) · $2.7 million · 2023 · planned
Awarded to the Guernsey County Board of Commissioners, not the city: lining two subdivisions' sewer networks (11,490 lf of 8-inch lining), 8,000 lf of 6-inch…
Source: content.govdelivery.com
Supply stress
Cambridge draws from Wills Creek, and Ohio EPA's 2005 source water assessment — still the current one cited in the CCR — flags that supply as susceptible to leaking underground storage facilities, oil and gas wells, mining runoff, scattered pockets of small unsewered areas, spills from local industries into Wills Creek and its…
Source: cambridgeoh.org
Sewers
Sanitary
The City of Cambridge operates its own sewer system, billed alongside water through the Utilities Office at 828 Wheeling Avenue. Plant location, capacity, receiving stream, NPDES permit details and any CSO status are not published on the city's website, and rates are available only on request. Separately, Guernsey County received a…
Storm
Not published in any source reviewed.
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
- 43725 · Cambridge65% 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
Cambridge, City Of does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
2 systems on record buy water from Cambridge, City Of: Guernsey Co. Water Dept., Western Guernsey Regional Water District.
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
Cambridge, City Of's own pages: cambridgeoh.org, dam.assets.ohio.gov
Notable facts: cambridgeoh.org
History: en.wikipedia.org, cambridgeoh.org, content.govdelivery.com
Water quality: cambridgeoh.org
Water pressure: cambridgeoh.org
Capital projects: content.govdelivery.com
Rates: cambridgeoh.org
Sewers: cambridgeoh.org, content.govdelivery.com
Treatment: cambridgeoh.org
Supply stress: cambridgeoh.org