Water system
Kenton City
EPA ID OH3300612 · Hardin County · 8,360 people served · owned by a local government
Kenton City treats its own water from Scioto River valley aquifer (local wells, low confidence).
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Scioto River
- Active wells
- 7
- Serves
- 8,360 people · Hardin County
- EPA ID
- OH3300612
About this area's water
Did you know
- Kenton sits on the headwaters of the Scioto River, but its water does not come from the river valley at all - all seven city wells draw on the carbonate limestone aquifer of northwest Ohio.
- Kenton's own 2025 water quality report lists CCR content violations in four separate years - 2018, 2020, 2023 and 2024 - including a 2024 report in which the fluoride number was wrong and barium and cyanide were left…
- The city's report states plainly that Kenton 'currently has no program in place' to act on its Ohio EPA source water assessment.
- Ohio EPA has ordered Kenton to submit, by September 1, 2026, a feasibility study on whether to build an entirely new treatment plant or hand its water over to a regional system.
- Rebuilding the water and sewer lines under downtown Kenton is estimated at $16-20 million in total; the $5 million state grant announced in 2023 covers a single phase.
History6
- 2018Kenton's 2018 CCR omitted gross alpha and radium-228 data from the table of detected contaminants (disclosed later as a past CCR content violation).
- 2020The 2020 CCR omitted gross alpha data and listed contaminants that had not been detected.
- 2023Ohio awards Kenton a $5 million Ohio BUILDS Water Infrastructure Grant (announced July 21, 2023) for Phase 2 of the Historic Courthouse District project - nine downtown blocks of water, storm and…
- 2023The 2023 CCR wrongly printed radium-228 at 2.7 pCi/L and gross alpha at 0.88 pCi/L (both were actually non-detects) and omitted unresolved significant deficiencies.
- 2024Ohio EPA informs Kenton on December 31, 2024 of a significant deficiency for failing to report the most recent gross alpha and radium-228 data on the 2023 CCR; the city corrects it in the 2024 CCR…
- 2024The 2024 CCR is itself found deficient: the fluoride figure was incorrect, barium and cyanide were left out, and unresolved significant deficiencies were not disclosed.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Seven city wells draw on the carbonate aquifer of northwest Ohio - not a Scioto River valley sand-and-gravel aquifer, despite Kenton sitting on the Scioto headwaters. Water is treated at the city's groundwater plant with chlorination (2025 average total chlorine 0.758 ppm), fluoridation, and…
Source: cms2.revize.com
Water pressure
Not published. No distribution pressure figure, pressure-zone map or engineering summary appears in Kenton's 2024 or 2025 CCR, on the water department page, or anywhere else on…
Source: cms2.revize.comcityofkenton.com
What it costs
Not published. Kenton bills monthly - bills are mailed the last day of the month and due on the 15th, with a 10% penalty on the 16th - but neither the water department page nor…
Source: cityofkenton.comcityofkenton.com
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Chlorine (residual) Average; range 0.5-1.0. Water additive used to control microbes. | 0.758 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Total Phosphate Average; range 0.11-0.18. Treatment-process additive. | 0.15 ppm | none… | 2025 |
| Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range 26.9-32.8. Down sharply from 55.4 ppb reported for 2024, and the lowest of the three systems in this batch. | 29.85 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Range 5.6-6.9. | 6.25 ppb | 60 | 2025 |
| Fluoride The 2025 CCR states that the fluoride figure printed in the 2024 CCR (1.15 ppm, sampled 2021) was incorrect. | 1.07 ppm | 4 | 2024 |
| Barium Omitted from the 2024 CCR; added after Ohio EPA cited the omission. | 0.0039 ppm | 2 | 2024 |
| Cyanide Omitted from the 2024 CCR; added after Ohio EPA cited the omission. | 1.0 ppb | 200 | 2024 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 20 samples over the action level. The 2025 CCR prints the 90th-percentile value as 0.0007 ppb, which looks like a… | 0.0007 ppb | 15 (AL) | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 20 samples over the action level. | 0.003 ppm | 1.3 (AL) | 2025 |
| Nitrate From the 2024 CCR; not listed as detected in the 2025 report. | 0.39 ppm | 10 | 2024 |
Source: cms2.revize.comcms2.revize.com
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0.7 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2023Ground Water Rule · did not fix a deficiency the state found · returned to compliance
6 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 5 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records); 1 health-based.
Projects & plans6
Recent and current work
- Historic Courthouse District water/sewer/storm main replacement, Phase 2 · $5 million · 2023
Funded by a $5 million Ohio BUILDS Water Infrastructure Grant announced July 21, 2023, covering nine downtown blocks of water, storm and sanitary mains.…
Source: wktn.com
Planned or needed
- Feasibility study for a new water treatment plant or regionalization · 2026 · needed
Ohio EPA significant deficiency issued June 13, 2025; the completed plan is due September 1, 2026. No cost published. - Repairs and upgrades to the existing water treatment plant · 2026 · needed
Ohio EPA significant deficiency issued June 13, 2025; an updated repair timeline was due June 30, 2026. Scope and cost not published. - Water loss reduction: master-meter verification and GIS modeling · 2026 · under construction
Ohio EPA significant deficiency. A water audit was completed December 31, 2025; progress updates on metering verification and GIS modeling were due June 30… - Lead service line material inventory completion · 2026 · needed
Ohio EPA issued a warning over the yearly notice owed to customers whose service line is lead or may be lead on October 21, 2025 after the city missed a July 1, 2025 deadline; the city has posted… - Full downtown water and sewer replacement program (all phases) · 2019 · proposed
The Kenton Downtown Plan puts the total estimated cost of repairing the downtown's aging water and sewer lines at $16-20 million depending on final design; the…
Supply stress
Kenton's own CCR says its seven wells 'ensure an adequate supply of water for future needs and growth,' and Ohio EPA rates the carbonate aquifer's susceptibility to contamination as MODERATE, based on the presence of significant contaminant sources inside the protection area. The city states outright that it has no program in place to…
Source: cms2.revize.com
Sewers
Sanitary
The City of Kenton operates its own wastewater treatment plant but publishes almost nothing about it: the city's wastewater plant page is a 'coming soon' placeholder, and no design flow, capacity, treatment process, receiving stream or NPDES detail is published. Phase 2 of…
Storm
Downtown storm sewer mains are being replaced alongside water and sanitary mains in the $5 million Ohio BUILDS-funded Historic Courthouse District project. No separate stormwater utility fee was identified.
Source: cityofkenton.comwktn.com
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
- 43326 · Kenton59% 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
Kenton 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 Kenton City.
What the records show about Kenton City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Kenton City as owned by a local government. It has 3,203 service connections and serves 8,360 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
Its office telephone on EPA's record is 419-674-4850.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Kenton City: corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, lime softening, 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 counts 1 health-based violation for Kenton City since 2015. Health-based means a contaminant above its legal limit or a required treatment step not carried out. It falls into 1 separate problem (one contaminant or rule in one year); the table lists it.
EPA logs 6 violations of any kind since 2020: 5 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records); 1 health-based.
| Year | Contaminant or rule | Kind | Measured | Limit | Status in EPA's record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Ground Water Rule | did not fix a deficiency the state found | not on file | not on file | returned to compliance |
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 Kenton 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 0.9 ppb, in the period ending December 2024.
EPA has 8 sampling periods on file for Kenton 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 Kenton City sent EPA, 3,174 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 1 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 25 |
| Unknown material | 2,927 |
| Not lead | 221 |
| All lines | 3,174 |
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 Kenton 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 Kenton City (latest sample October 2020). Not one of the six PFAS tested (PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX and PFBS) was detected.
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 Kenton City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 33.5 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 33.5 µg/L and the highest single sample was 35.7 µg/L, from 15 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 0 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 3.5 µg/L and the highest single sample was 7.1 µg/L, from 15 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 33.5 µg/L (2019) | 33.5 µg/L | 35.7 µg/L | 15 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 0 µg/L | 3.5 µg/L | 7.1 µg/L | 15 |
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 was not detected in 8 samples through 2019 (limit 10 mg/L as nitrogen; 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 | not detected | 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. Not detected: atrazine, alachlor, chromium, cadmium, barium, mercury, 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 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 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 870 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Kenton City tested positive (0.11%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 110 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 Kenton City adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists no fluoridation step at Kenton City.
Measured fluoride: 1.11 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.91 to 1.11 mg/L across 4 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 found in 2 of 2 UCMR 5 samples at Kenton City, highest 44.1 µg/L; detections averaged 41.2, last sampled in 2024.
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.
Water and sewer bills
Ohio EPA's 2023 rate survey puts the water bill at Kenton City for a household using 5,000 gallons a month at $598 a year, about $50 a month.
The sewer bill in the same survey is $728 a year at 5,000 gallons a month.
| Use | Water, per year | Sewer, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 gallons a month | $434 | $548 |
| 5,000 gallons a month | $598 | $728 |
| 8,000 gallons a month | $794 | $945 |
The survey lists it as “Kenton”. 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 Kenton 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 7,899 residents are inside the boundary, 94% of the 8,360 people Kenton 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 — 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 OH3300612 (EPA ECHO).
Kenton City's own pages: cms2.revize.com
Notable facts: cms2.revize.com, kentondowntownplan.com, wktn.com
History: cms2.revize.com, cms2.revize.com, wktn.com
Water quality: cms2.revize.com, cms2.revize.com
Planned work: cms2.revize.com, kentondowntownplan.com
Water pressure: cms2.revize.com, cityofkenton.com
Capital projects: wktn.com
Rates: cityofkenton.com, cityofkenton.com
Sewers: cityofkenton.com, wktn.com
Treatment: cms2.revize.com
Supply stress: cms2.revize.com
