Water system
New Athens
EPA ID OH3401103 · Harrison County · 367 people served · owned by a local government
New Athens buys its water from Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3.
The system's record
- Aquifer
- Alluvial aquifer along the Ohio River, north of Bellaire
- Water bodies
- Ohio River (via alluvial aquifer)
- Active wells
- 1
- Serves
- 26,822 people · Belmont County
- EPA ID
- OH0700412
About this area's water
Did you know
- New Athens was home to Franklin College, one of Ohio's early 19th-century institutions of higher learning, founded in 1818 by abolitionist John Walker and operating for over 100 years until it closed in 1919.
- EPA infrastructure records show the village's water system includes a 100,000-gallon storage tank.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgdata.epa.gov
History4
- 1817/1818New Athens was platted in 1817; a post office has operated there since 1818. The village was home to Franklin College, founded in 1818 by abolitionist John Walker and operating for over 100 years…
- 2006-2007EPA facility records show New Athens operated its own water treatment plant (facility type TP) until it was deactivated between October 2006 and February 2007, after which the village began…
- 1995-2000New Athens logged three violations for lead and copper tap testing missed or reported late (compliance periods starting 1995, 1996, and 1999), all resolved by 2000, per EPA SDWIS.
- 2021-presentNew Athens has an open, unresolved violation for an inadequate yearly water quality report (the Consumer Confidence Report) dating to October 26, 2021, and a second, separate one dating to December 18, 2024 — neither shows a…
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
New Athens buys finished groundwater from Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3 (PWSID OH0700412), a local-government-owned groundwater system serving roughly 26,800 people across the county, per EPA SDWIS. New Athens itself previously ran its own treatment plant, deactivated around 2006-2007 (see…
Source: data.epa.govdata.epa.gov
Water pressure
Not published anywhere found.
What it costs
No rate schedule, ordinance, or council minutes could be located for New Athens or for its wholesale supplier, Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3. The county government's own website…
Water quality & impurities
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.
3 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 3 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
EPA compliance record · Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3 (treats the water)
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2026 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2024Lead and Copper Rule Revisions · lead service line inventory missing or incomplete (a records requirement, not a lead test result) · returned to compliance
4 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 1 for required testing that was missed or reported late; 2 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.
Supply stress
New Athens depends entirely on purchased water from Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3. EPA SDWIS records show New Athens' own system currently carries two open, unresolved violations for an inadequate yearly water quality report (since Oct. 26, 2021 and Dec. 18, 2024), and its wholesale supplier separately carries an open one of the same kind, dated January 2021.
Source: data.epa.govdata.epa.gov
Sewers
Sanitary
Not documented on any source located.
Storm
Not documented on any source located.
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources. Little is published about this system, so details are thin.
Main supplier in 1 ZIP code
Serves
Main water supplier in 1 ZIP code
- 43981 · New Athens63% of residents
Also present in 1 more ZIP code
- 43907 · Cadiz1% 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
New Athens buys its water from Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3.
No other system is on record buying water from New Athens.
What the records show about New Athens
Who runs it
EPA's record describes New Athens as owned by a local government. It has 238 service connections and serves 367 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 740-968-6181.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
New Athens buys water that Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3 treats first, so the steps that count are the seller's. EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3: corrosion control, chlorine disinfection, fluoridation, ion-exchange 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's record shows no health-based violations for New Athens since 2015.
EPA logs 3 violations of any kind since 2020: 3 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 New Athens 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 2.3 ppb, in the period ending December 2024.
EPA has 7 sampling periods on file for New Athens 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 New Athens sent EPA, 233 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 0 |
| Unknown material | 0 |
| Not lead | 233 |
| All lines | 233 |
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
The water New Athens buys is treated by Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, so the results below are Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3's.
EPA's fifth national round of testing (UCMR 5) took 3 samples of the water entering the pipes of Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3 in 2023 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 Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3 (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 2 plants of Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3 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 New Athens's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 56.6 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 66.9 µg/L and the highest single sample was 69.7 µg/L, from 14 samples taken from 2013 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 13.1 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 26.4 µg/L and the highest single sample was 28.6 µg/L, from 14 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 56.6 µg/L (2019) | 66.9 µg/L | 69.7 µg/L | 14 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 13.1 µg/L | 26.4 µg/L | 28.6 µg/L | 14 |
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
The water New Athens buys is treated by Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, so the results below are Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3's.
Nitrate: the highest of 7 samples was 1.86 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2017; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 1.03 mg/L. No sample was over the limit of 10 mg/L. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants.
Arsenic was not detected in 2 samples (limit 10 µg/L).
| Contaminant | Samples | Highest result | Limit | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 7 | 1.86 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 2 | 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 of Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3.
Solvents and fuels
The water New Athens buys is treated by Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, so the results below are Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3's.
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 6 samples each.
| Compound | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benzene | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| 1,2-dichloroethane | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Trichloroethylene (TCE) | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Vinyl chloride | 2 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | 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 of Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3.
Farm chemicals and metals
The water New Athens buys is treated by Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, so the results below are Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3's.
EPA's file holds results for 8 of the nine herbicides and metals it checked. Detected: barium in 1 of 2 samples, highest 23.5 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: atrazine, alachlor, chromium, cadmium, mercury, selenium, and thallium, in 2 samples each.
| 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 | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Cadmium | Metal | 5 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Barium | Metal | 2,000 µg/L | 2 | 1 of 2 | 23.5 µg/L | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Selenium | Metal | 50 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Thallium | Metal | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | 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 of Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3.
Bacteria in the pipes
From 2012 to 2019, 1 of 100 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at New Athens tested positive (1%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 12 did. E. coli was never found in the 76 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 New Athens buys its water from Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, a system that adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, which treats the water New Athens buys.
Measured fluoride: 1 mg/L on average leaving the plants of Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, which supplies New Athens, in 2017 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.98 to 1 mg/L across 2 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 Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, which supplies New Athens, last sampled in 2023 (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
The service area drawn on the map for New Athens comes from the utility's own map.
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 OH3401103 (EPA ECHO).
Notable facts: en.wikipedia.org, data.epa.gov
History: en.wikipedia.org, data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
Treatment: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
Supply stress: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
