Norwood City

• Norwood ran on its own artesian wells for 65 years, and in the 1937 flood the roles reversed: with the Cincinnati Water Works shut down, nearly the whole city came to Norwood to fill buckets and tubs from its wells.
• Only after its own water table dropped in 1959 did Norwood switch to buying wholesale from Cincinnati, a relationship now in its seventh decade.
• The Cincinnati system Norwood depends on was the first municipally owned water works in Ohio, bought by the city on June 25, 1839 for $300,000.
• GCWW's Miller plant was the first utility in the nation to run granular activated carbon and reactivate the carbon on site, in two 1,500-degree furnaces; because GAC strips out organics, the plant needs about two-thirds…
• GCWW tests the water an average of 300 times a day, and Norwood's own health department adds a chlorine-residual test 365 days a year on top of that.

Source: norwoodohiohistoricalsociety.orgcincinnati-oh.govwvxu.org

• 1892-1894Norwood voters approved a public water works in 1892; the system was completed in 1894 with six artesian wells, a pumping station at Harris Avenue and Pine Street, and a 100-foot steel water tower…
• 1937When the Ohio River flood knocked out the Cincinnati Water Works, nearly the whole city turned to Norwood's artesian wells to fill buckets and tubs.
• 1959The water table under Norwood's artesian wells dropped to a level too expensive to keep pumping, and the city began buying finished water wholesale from Cincinnati, which it still does.
• 1817-1839Norwood's present supplier traces to an 1817 charter granting the Cincinnati Manufacturing Company exclusive rights to a public water supply; first delivery was July 3, 1821, and on June 25, 1839 the…
• 1906-1907GCWW's 'New Works' Ohio River treatment plant (later the Richard Miller Treatment Plant) became operational.
• 1992GCWW's granular activated carbon facility at the Miller plant went into service, the first in the nation to use GAC and reactivate it on site.

Source: norwoodohiohistoricalsociety.orgcincinnati-oh.govwvxu.org

How it is treated

Norwood treats no water of its own. It buys all of its finished water wholesale from Greater Cincinnati Water Works and holds an unconditional Ohio EPA license to operate its distribution system, doing its own metering, billing and main repairs. Norwood's supply comes from GCWW's Richard Miller…

Source: norwoodohio.govcincinnati-oh.gov

Water pressure

Not published. Neither Norwood nor GCWW publishes a distribution pressure figure for the Norwood service area; no psi value could be substantiated.

Norwood sets its own retail water rates by city ordinance and does not publish a rate schedule online; residential bills are quarterly and combine water, sewer and garbage on one…

Source: norwood-ohio.comnorwood-ohio.comcincinnati-oh.gov

Source: norwoodohio.govcincinnati-oh.gov

EPA compliance record

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 1.7 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

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

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 2.1 ppb in 2026 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

Recent and current work

• Citywide radio-read water meter replacement · $2 million · 2022-2024 · completed
  Approximately $2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds used to replace all residential meters, ending decades of estimated bills; billing stayed…
• Montgomery Road water main · 2025 · completed
  Ordinance 21-2025 ratified bids for the Montgomery Rd water main; Ordinance 71-2025 authorized advertising for bids on a Montgomery-Crown water main repair. No…
• Lead service line replacement, Lincoln Avenue · 2025 · under construction
  Ordinance 05-2025 authorized a loan agreement to fund replacement of Lincoln Ave lead lines. Cost not published.
• Lead service line replacement, Norwood to Fenwick and Worth to Dale · 2025 · under construction
  Ordinances 14-2025 and 15-2025 authorized Ohio EPA loan applications for the Fenwick and Worth lead lines; Ordinances 30-2025 and 31-2025 executed the loan…

Source: norwood-ohio.comnorwood-ohio.com

Planned or needed

• Water main repair, Montgomery-Crown · 2025 · planned
  Ordinance 71-2025 authorized the Safety-Service Director to advertise for bids. No cost published.
• Mt. Airy Water Storage Facility rehabilitation, Phase 2 (supplier-side, GCWW) · $40 million · 2026-2028 · planned
  A GCWW project, not Norwood's: Phase 1 design-build evaluation of the nearly 100-year-old tanks is budgeted at up to $3.8M and runs into 2026; Phase 2…

Source: norwood-ohio.comcincinnati-oh.govwvxu.org

Norwood has had no independent water source since 1959 and holds no standby wells, so its supply security rests entirely on GCWW's Richard Miller plant and the Ohio River. Ohio EPA classifies the Ohio River as highly susceptible to contamination because it is open to the environment and pollution moves quickly downstream. GCWW's barriers…

Source: norwoodohio.gov

Sanitary

Norwood does not run its own sewage treatment. The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati serves the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, which includes Norwood; the sewer charge appears as a line item on Norwood's quarterly utility bill, and the city's own billing material points customers to MSD's Customer Assistance…

Storm

Not documented. Norwood's utility bill carries only water, sewer and garbage line items, with no separate stormwater fee; no Norwood-specific storm or combined-sewer detail could be substantiated.

Source: msdgc.orgmsdgc.orgnorwood-ohio.com

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