Water system
Dunkirk Village
EPA ID OH3300212 · Hardin County · 875 people served · owned by a local government
Dunkirk Village treats its own water from Groundwater wells (2 wells).
The system's record
- Active wells
- 2
- Serves
- 875 people · Hardin County
- EPA ID
- OH3300212
About this area's water
Did you know
- Named after Dunkirk, New York, when the village was platted in 1852.
- In 2006 ODOT floated Dunkirk as a possible stop on the proposed 'Ohio Hub' high-speed passenger rail corridor, per Wikipedia.
- Its 2 active wells are treated with a packed-tower aerator plus ion exchange before chlorination -- a small-system setup for iron/hardness removal, per EPA SDWIS facility and treatment records.
- The village has lost over 40% of its population since its 1880 peak of 1,311 residents (2020 census: 774).
Source: en.wikipedia.orgdata.epa.gov
History5
- 1852Village platted when the railroad was extended to the site; named for Dunkirk, New York (per Wikipedia).
- 1854Post office established.
- 1880Population peaked at 1,311; 2020 census recorded 774, roughly a 41% decline since (per Wikipedia).
- 2020-2025EPA logs repeated violations over the yearly water quality report (the Consumer Confidence Report) in 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025; the 2020 (opened Feb. 6) and 2022 (opened Aug. 17) violations remain open.
- 2025A separate violation over the yearly notice owed to customers whose service line is lead or may be lead opened July 2, 2025; EPA records a return to compliance on Dec. 12, 2025.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgdata.epa.gov
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Groundwater from 2 currently active wells (Well 1 and Well 2); a third well (Well 3) was deactivated in 1997 per EPA SDWIS facility records. Water is pre-chlorinated (hypochlorination), passed through a packed-tower aerator and an ion-exchange…
Source: data.epa.govdata.epa.gov
Water pressure
Not published. EPA SDWIS lists an elevated storage tank serving the distribution system.
Source: data.epa.gov
What it costs
We found no residential rate published online; the village is administered through the fiscal officer's office and does not appear to maintain a dedicated utility website or…
Water quality & impurities2
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly water quality report Opened Feb. 6, 2020 and Aug. 17, 2022; both remain open in EPA SDWIS with no return-to-compliance date recorded as of… | N/A violation | N/A | 2020… |
| Lead service line notices Opened July 2, 2025; SDWIS records a return-to-compliance date of Dec. 12, 2025 (resolved). | N/A violation | N/A | 2025 |
Source: data.epa.gov
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
6 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 6 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Supply stress
Small groundwater system (390 connections, 875 served) now running on 2 active wells (a third was retired in 1997). Federal records show violations over the yearly water quality report and lead service line notices rather than measured contamination; two (from 2020 and 2022) remain open as of this review, while a 2025 violation initially flagged as open has since been…
Source: data.epa.govdata.epa.gov
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
- 45836 · Dunkirk60% 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
Dunkirk Village does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Dunkirk Village.
What the records show about Dunkirk Village
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Dunkirk Village as owned by a local government. It has 390 service connections and serves 875 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. Its office telephone on EPA's record is 419-759-2808.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Dunkirk Village: aeration, chlorine disinfection, and ion-exchange softening.
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 Dunkirk Village since 2015.
EPA logs 6 violations of any kind since 2020: 6 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 Dunkirk Village was 0 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027. A result of 0 means at least nine in ten of the homes sampled had no lead detected.
The highest result on file is 4.3 ppb, in the period ending December 2022.
EPA has 7 sampling periods on file for Dunkirk Village since 2016, the first ending in 2017; 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 Dunkirk Village sent EPA, 413 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 4 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 0 |
| Unknown material | 66 |
| Not lead | 343 |
| All lines | 413 |
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
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Dunkirk Village (latest sample October 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 Dunkirk Village as sampled, most recently February 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 Dunkirk Village's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 31.4 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 31.4 µg/L and the highest single sample was 34.4 µg/L, from 16 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 10.9 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 10.9 µg/L and the highest single sample was 11 µg/L, from 16 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 31.4 µg/L (2019) | 31.4 µg/L | 34.4 µg/L | 16 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 10.9 µg/L | 10.9 µg/L | 11 µg/L | 16 |
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 9 samples was 0.6 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2015; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 0.5 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) | 9 | 0.6 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 1 of 3 samples, highest 45 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: atrazine in 2 samples, alachlor in 2 samples, chromium in 3 samples, cadmium in 3 samples, mercury in 3 samples, selenium in 3 samples, thallium in 3 samples.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | 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 | 1 of 3 | 45 µg/L | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 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 96 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Dunkirk Village tested positive (1.04%); in 2019, the last year on file, 1 of 12 did. E. coli was never found in the 1 sample 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 Dunkirk Village has fluoride from natural sources at a level higher than what is needed to prevent tooth decay. The level it reports is 1.57 mg/L.
EPA's treatment table lists no fluoridation step at Dunkirk Village.
Measured fluoride: 1.67 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2018 (above the target); samples ran from 1.56 to 1.67 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.
Water and sewer bills
Ohio EPA's 2023 rate survey puts the water bill at Dunkirk Village for a household using 5,000 gallons a month at $530 a year, about $44 a month.
The sewer bill in the same survey is $686 a year at 5,000 gallons a month.
| Use | Water, per year | Sewer, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 gallons a month | $396 | $624 |
| 5,000 gallons a month | $530 | $686 |
| 8,000 gallons a month | $703 | $761 |
The survey lists it as “Dunkirk”. These are inside-city rates and annual bills at the use shown.
Source: Ohio EPA 2023 Sewer and Water Rate Survey (Ohio State University, May 2025).
How well the service area is mapped
EPA estimated the service area of Dunkirk Village with a computer model rather than drawing it from the utility's map, so its edges are approximate.
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 — 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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH3300212 (EPA ECHO).
Notable facts: en.wikipedia.org, data.epa.gov
History: en.wikipedia.org, data.epa.gov
Water quality: data.epa.gov
Water pressure: data.epa.gov
Treatment: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
Supply stress: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
