Tri-county Water Authority

Who runs it

EPA's record says Tri-county Water Authority has 783 service connections and serves 2,370 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 740-546-3745.

Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.

How the water is treated

Tri-county Water Authority 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 Tri-county Water Authority since 2015.

EPA logs 2 violations of any kind since 2020: 1 for required testing that was missed or reported late; 1 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 Tri-county Water Authority was 2.1 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027.

The highest result on file is 5.7 ppb, in the period ending December 2021.

EPA has 8 sampling periods on file for Tri-county Water Authority 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 Tri-county Water Authority sent EPA, 774 lines are counted.

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 Tri-county Water Authority 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 Tri-county Water Authority's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 24.2 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 42.1 µg/L and the highest single sample was 44 µg/L, from 15 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.

For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 3.5 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 7.2 µg/L and the highest single sample was 7.3 µg/L, from 15 samples.

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 Tri-county Water Authority 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).

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 Tri-county Water Authority 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.

"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 Tri-county Water Authority 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.

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, 0 of 194 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Tri-county Water Authority tested positive (0%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 24 did.

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 Tri-county Water Authority 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 Tri-county Water Authority buys.

Measured fluoride: 1 mg/L on average leaving the plants of Belmont Co. Sanitary District 3, which supplies Tri-county Water Authority, 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 Tri-county Water Authority, 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 Tri-county Water Authority comes from the utility's own map.

Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 589 residents are inside the boundary, 25% of the 2,370 people Tri-county Water Authority reports serving. With so much of its territory outside the polygon, part of the system shows on the map as private wells.

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.