Water system
Harrison City
EPA ID OH3100812 · Hamilton County · 11,600 people served · owned by a local government
Harrison City treats its own water from Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells).
The system's record
- Aquifer
- Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer
- Active wells
- 7
- Serves
- 11,600 people · Hamilton County
- EPA ID
- OH3100812
About this area's water
Did you know
- Three of the seven wells that supply this Ohio city sit in another state - at 153 Harrison-Brookville Rd. in West Harrison, Indiana.
- Harrison's emergency backup water supply is also out of state: an interconnection with Tri-Township Water Corporation in Bright, Indiana.
- The city's 2025 PFAS monitoring under the federal UCMR-5 rule came back with zero detections.
- Harrison built its own reverse-osmosis plant rather than buy softer water: since 2022 the tap water leaves the plant at 8 grains per gallon with iron non-detectable, and the city now tells residents that low pressure at…
Source: harrisonohio.govharrisonohio.gov
History5
- 2017Conceptual design begun for a reverse-osmosis membrane softening system to stop hard, iron-bearing water from damaging plant and distribution infrastructure.
- 2018-2019City secured Ohio EPA revolving-loan financing for the design and then the construction of the softening plant.
- 2020Construction of the RO softening improvements started in October, on an 18-month schedule.
- 20221.5 MGD reverse-osmosis membrane softening system placed in service in the summer, cutting finished-water hardness to about 40 mg/L as CaCO3 (8 grains per gallon) with iron non-detectable.
- 2025Harrison completed UCMR-5 (PFAS) monitoring with zero detections and met all regulatory standards for the year; the system holds a current unconditional Ohio EPA license.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Groundwater from seven wells in the Great Miami (buried valley) Aquifer: four in the Harrison well field at 329 Thomas Lane, about a quarter mile north on State Street from State and Harrison Ave., and three more at 153 Harrison-Brookville Rd. in West Harrison, Indiana. Water is disinfected with…
Source: harrisonohio.govharrisonohio.govfishbeck.com
Water pressure
Not published as a psi figure or pressure-zone map. The city's water page addresses pressure only to note that low household pressure is usually a failing home water softener…
Source: harrisonohio.gov
What it costs
$4.29 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $31 a month for water.
Effective 7/1/2025. Inside-city residential with a 5/8-inch meter: $13.91 monthly customer charge plus $4.29 per unit, where the rate sheet defines a unit as 1,000 gallons.…
Source: harrisonohio.govharrisonohio.gov
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples over the action level. | 0.7 ppb | 15 (AL) | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples over the action level. The CCR's table also prints 0.392 ppm in the adjacent 'individual results over… | 0.454 ppm | 1.3 (AL) | 2025 |
| Total chlorine Range 0.4 to 1.10 mg/L. | 1.10 mg/L | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range 11.6 to 16.2 ug/L. Speciated as chloroform 7.1, bromodichloromethane 5.2, dibromochloromethane 3.2 and bromoform… | 16.2 ug/L | 80 | 2025 |
| Fluoride Range 0.80 to 1.04 mg/L; natural plus fluoridation additive. | 1.04 mg/L | 4 | 2025 |
| Nitrate Well below the MCL despite a shallow, unconfined aquifer. | 0.53 mg/L | 10 | 2025 |
| Barium Monitored less than annually; most recent result carried forward. | 0.06 mg/L | 2 | 2022 |
| Beryllium Trace, far below the MCL. | 0.06 ug/L | 4 | 2024 |
| Dichlorobenzene Trace industrial organic, essentially at the detection floor. | 0.03 ug/L | 600 | 2024 |
| PFAS (UCMR-5 suite) City completed UCMR-5 sampling with zero detections. | not detected n/a | unregulated… | 2025 |
Source: harrisonohio.gov
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0.7 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
2 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 2 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Projects & plans1
Recent and current work
- Reverse osmosis membrane softening plant · 2022 · completed
1.5 MGD RO system with three membrane arrays and space for a fourth, plus chemical feed, a diesel generator and stormwater management work. Designed by…
Source: fishbeck.comharrisonohio.gov
Supply stress
Ohio EPA rates the Harrison well fields as having HIGH susceptibility to contamination: a shallow water table, no confining layer between the ground surface and the aquifer, and known potential contaminant sources sitting inside the city's wellhead protection areas. The CCR is explicit that this describes potential, not actual…
Source: harrisonohio.gov
Sewers
Sanitary
Harrison runs its own wastewater treatment plant (Wastewater Department, 10999 Campbell Rd.), which city utilities pages describe as having an average daily design flow of about 2.3 MGD and being supported by six wastewater pump stations across the community; treated effluent discharges to the Whitewater River. Sewer charges are…
Storm
No stormwater utility fee or storm system data is published. The city's sewer pages only explain the distinction, calling storm sewers 'storm collection systems' that carry rainfall to a creek, river or detention basin. This is a small system that publishes…
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
- 45030 · Harrison58% of residents
Also present in 1 more ZIP code
- 45053 · Morgan Township and Okeana21% 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
Harrison 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 Harrison City.
What the records show about Harrison City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Harrison City as owned by a local government. It has 4,650 service connections and serves 11,600 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
EPA's record says it has substantially implemented source water protection under Ohio's program, dating the program from 2025.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Harrison City: corrosion control, chlorine disinfection, dechlorination, iron and manganese removal, fluoridation, membrane filtration, and sand or media filtration.
The list is what each system registered with EPA for treatment plants EPA still shows as active, and it can lag a plant upgrade.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) treatment table (EPA Envirofacts, pulled September 2026).
Violations
EPA's record shows no health-based violations for Harrison City since 2015.
EPA logs 2 violations of any kind since 2020: 2 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) violation records: health-based violations with compliance periods beginning in 2015 or later, all violations from 2020 or later (EPA Envirofacts, pulled September 2026).
Lead and copper at the tap
In the sampling period ending December 2025, the 90th-percentile lead result at Harrison City was 0.7 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027.
The highest result on file is 1.3 ppb, in the period ending December 2022.
EPA has 9 sampling periods on file for Harrison City since 2016, the first ending in 2018; no period was above 10 ppb.
Every water system has to inventory its service lines, the pipes from the main to each building. In the inventory Harrison City sent EPA, 4,347 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 3 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 5 |
| Unknown material | 2,714 |
| Not lead | 1,625 |
| All lines | 4,347 |
Systems sample taps in the homes most likely to have lead pipes or solder. The 90th-percentile result is the level nine in ten of the sampled homes were at or below. Lead comes mostly from service lines and house plumbing, not the source water, so a low result for the system does not clear an old house.
EPA's dashboard status for this inventory: reported all required service line types.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) lead and copper 90th-percentile results (EPA Envirofacts), sampling periods ending 2016 or later; EPA's service line inventory dashboard, Ohio's 2026 Q2 submission.
PFAS
EPA's fifth national round of testing (UCMR 5) took 2 samples of the water entering the pipes of Harrison City in 2024 and measured 29 PFAS. No PFAS was detected, PFOA and PFOS (federal limit 4 ng/L each) among them.
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Harrison City (latest sample June 2020). Not one of the six PFAS tested (PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX and PFBS) was detected.
Ohio EPA's current sampling status map lists 1 plant of Harrison City as sampled, most recently August 2026.
PFAS are the 'forever chemicals' from firefighting foam, plating shops and non-stick coatings. Results are for water leaving the plant, not your tap.
Source: EPA UCMR 5 occurrence data (final release, August 2026); Ohio EPA statewide PFAS sampling, 2019 to 2021, and its sampling status map.
Disinfection byproducts
Chlorine that disinfects water also reacts with organic matter to form byproducts. Two groups have federal limits: total trihalomethanes (TTHM, 80 µg/L) and five haloacetic acids (HAA5, 60 µg/L), judged on running yearly averages at each sampling site.
For TTHM, the average of Harrison City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 27.1 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 29.6 µg/L and the highest single sample was 35.8 µg/L, from 39 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 0 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 9.1 µg/L and the highest single sample was 9.7 µg/L, from 39 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 27.1 µg/L (2019) | 29.6 µg/L | 35.8 µg/L | 39 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 0 µg/L | 9.1 µg/L | 9.7 µg/L | 39 |
A yearly average of 0 means nothing was detected in that year's samples. EPA's file stops at 2019; Ohio EPA's Drinking Water Watch has newer results.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, distribution-system samples (non-detects counted as zero).
Nitrate, arsenic and radioactivity
Nitrate: the highest of 8 samples was 1.95 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2012; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 0.85 mg/L. No sample was over the limit of 10 mg/L. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants.
Arsenic was not detected in 3 samples (limit 10 µg/L).
| Contaminant | Samples | Highest result | Limit | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 8 | 1.95 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 3 | not detected | 10 µg/L | 0 |
Measured in finished water: at the plant's entry points and in the distribution system; raw well and intake samples are left out. Non-detects count as zero.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Solvents and fuels
EPA's file holds results for all six solvent and fuel compounds it checked. Benzene, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, and vinyl chloride were not detected in 3 samples each.
| Compound | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benzene | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| 1,2-dichloroethane | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Trichloroethylene (TCE) | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Vinyl chloride | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
"Not detected" means the lab's result was below what its method can measure, not that the compound is absent. Non-detects count as zero in the highest-result column.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Farm chemicals and metals
EPA's file holds results for 8 of the nine herbicides and metals it checked. Detected: barium in 3 of 3 samples, highest 70 µg/L (limit 2,000); mercury in 1 of 3 samples, highest 0.5 µg/L (limit 2). Not detected: atrazine, alachlor, chromium, cadmium, selenium, and thallium, in 3 samples each.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Chromium | Metal | 100 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Cadmium | Metal | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Barium | Metal | 2,000 µg/L | 3 | 3 of 3 | 70 µg/L | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 3 | 1 of 3 | 0.5 µg/L | 0 |
| Selenium | Metal | 50 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Thallium | Metal | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
Non-detects count as zero in the highest-result column.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Bacteria in the pipes
From 2012 to 2019, 1 of 1,161 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Harrison City tested positive (0.09%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 121 did. E. coli was never found in the 2 samples tested for it.
A positive coliform test is a warning sign, not a violation by itself. E. coli is a sign that human or animal waste may have reached the water. Coliform counts are routine samples only; E. coli counts include repeat samples.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, distribution-system presence/absence tests for total coliform and E. coli.
Fluoride
The Ohio Department of Health's report to the CDC (My Water's Fluoride) says Harrison City adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Harrison City.
Measured fluoride: 0.82 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2018 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.74 to 0.98 mg/L across 3 samples in 2012 to 2019.
The recommended level for preventing tooth decay is 0.7 mg/L; the federal limit is 4 mg/L. The treatment list is what each system registered with EPA and can lag a plant upgrade.
Source: CDC My Water's Fluoride (fluoridation status as reported by the Ohio Department of Health, fetched September 2026); EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) treatment table; EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, entry-point fluoride samples.
Lithium
Lithium was not detected in 2 UCMR 5 samples at Harrison City, last sampled in 2024 (the method reports from 9 µg/L).
Lithium is not regulated. EPA's draft health reference level is 10 µg/L, and it occurs naturally in deep groundwater, so well systems in the northwest run highest.
Source: EPA UCMR 5 occurrence data (final release, August 2026), samples from 2023 to 2025.
How well the service area is mapped
EPA estimated the service area of Harrison City with a computer model rather than drawing it from the utility's map, so its edges are approximate.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 12,988 residents are inside the boundary, 112% of the 11,600 people Harrison City reports serving.
The resident count is an estimate from 2020 Census ZIP-code populations, not a count of customers.
Source: EPA Service Area Boundaries; resident estimate by this atlas from ZIP-code overlap.
Photograph
On the map
Show this system's territory on the map — 2 ZIP codes 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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH3100812 (EPA ECHO).
Harrison City's own pages: harrisonohio.gov, harrisonohio.gov
Notable facts: harrisonohio.gov, harrisonohio.gov
History: harrisonohio.gov, fishbeck.com, harrisonohio.gov
Water quality: harrisonohio.gov
Water pressure: harrisonohio.gov
Capital projects: fishbeck.com, harrisonohio.gov
Rates: harrisonohio.gov, harrisonohio.gov
Sewers: harrisonohio.gov, harrisonohio.gov, harrisonohio.gov
Treatment: harrisonohio.gov, harrisonohio.gov, fishbeck.com
Supply stress: harrisonohio.gov
