Water system
Carbon Hill Water Association
EPA ID OH3700103 · Hocking County · 910 people served · owned by a local government
Carbon Hill Water Association buys its water from Burr Oak Regional Water District.
The system's record
- Aquifer
- Hocking River buried valley aquifer (sand and gravel)
- Active wells
- 6
- Serves
- 1,994 people · Athens County
- EPA ID
- OH0501311
About this area's water
Did you know
- Carbon Hill's 2020 census population was just 178 — smaller than the 910 people the water association reports serving, meaning it also supplies water to surrounding rural Hocking County homes outside the village itself…
- The town's name is a fossil-fuel reference: it grew up around 19th-century coal mining, and 'carbon' was literally the coal being dug from the hill.
- Carbon Hill hasn't drawn its own water since 2006, when EPA records show its last active source well was deactivated; it now exists purely to move Burr Oak Regional Water District's treated water through local pipes.
Source: data.epa.govdata.epa.gov
History4
- 1873Carbon Hill established as a Hocking County coal-mining town; the community's name comes directly from the coal mined there.
- 1879Post office opened in Carbon Hill.
- 2006Carbon Hill Water Association's own groundwater source well (facility P01) was deactivated on 10/31/2006, per EPA SDWIS facility records.
- presentCarbon Hill Water Association now buys finished water from Burr Oak Regional Water District rather than treating its own; EPA SDWIS records the association's own treatment entry explicitly as 'NO…
Source: en.wikipedia.orgdata.epa.gov
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Carbon Hill Water Association performs no treatment of its own — EPA records list its facility treatment code as 'NO TREATMENT.' It purchases already-treated water wholesale from Burr Oak Regional Water District (a groundwater system based in Millfield, Ohio) via an active interconnection, and…
Source: data.epa.govdata.epa.gov
Water pressure
Not published.
What it costs
Not published — no independent website or published rate schedule was found for this small rural water association; searches for local rate ordinances or news coverage turned up…
Water quality & impurities1
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (90th percentile, Lead and Copper… Well below the EPA action level; most recent 2024-25 sampling returned non-detect (0 mg/L). | 0.00095 mg/L | 0.015 | 2019-202… |
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.
1 violation of any kind logged since 2020: 1 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 · Burr Oak Regional Water District (treats the water)
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 1.7 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
1 violation of any kind logged since 2020: 1 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
No health-based violations on record; SDWIS shows only paperwork and missed-testing violations: lead tap results not delivered to the homes sampled (April 2013), an inadequate yearly water quality report (December 2018), missed coliform testing (November 2019) and a lead service line notice (July 2025). As a wholesale customer with no source of its own since 2006, Carbon Hill's water security depends entirely on Burr Oak Regional Water District's groundwater wells and the small…
Source: data.epa.gov
Sewers
Sanitary
We found no record of a centralized sanitary sewer system for Carbon Hill.
Storm
Not published.
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
- 43111 · Ward Township and Carbon Hill100% of residents
Also present in 1 more ZIP code
- 45764 · Nelsonville1% 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
Carbon Hill Water Association buys its water from Burr Oak Regional Water District.
No other system is on record buying water from Carbon Hill Water Association.
What the records show about Carbon Hill Water Association
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Carbon Hill Water Association as owned by a local government. It has 313 service connections and serves 910 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 740-753-3679.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
Carbon Hill Water Association buys water that Burr Oak Regional Water District treats first, so the steps that count are the seller's. EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Burr Oak Regional Water District: aeration, corrosion control, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, fluoridation, ion-exchange softening, and sand or media filtration.
Carbon Hill Water Association adds nothing of its own on that table.
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 Carbon Hill Water Association since 2015.
EPA logs 1 violation of any kind since 2020: 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 Carbon Hill Water Association 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 0.9 ppb, in the period ending December 2019.
EPA has 4 sampling periods on file for Carbon Hill Water Association since 2016, the first ending in 2016; 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 Carbon Hill Water Association sent EPA, 202 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 0 |
| Unknown material | 20 |
| Not lead | 182 |
| All lines | 202 |
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 Carbon Hill Water Association buys is treated by Burr Oak Regional Water District, so the results below are Burr Oak Regional Water District's.
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Burr Oak Regional Water District (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 1 plant of Burr Oak Regional Water District as sampled, most recently June 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 Carbon Hill Water Association's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 51.5 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 66.2 µg/L and the highest single sample was 74.4 µg/L, from 15 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 12.2 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 21.8 µg/L and the highest single sample was 26.2 µg/L, from 15 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 51.5 µg/L (2019) | 66.2 µg/L | 74.4 µg/L | 15 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 12.2 µg/L | 21.8 µg/L | 26.2 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
The water Carbon Hill Water Association buys is treated by Burr Oak Regional Water District, so the results below are Burr Oak Regional Water District's.
Nitrate: the highest of 10 samples was 0.48 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2013; in 2019, the last year sampled, nitrate was not detected. 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) | 10 | 0.48 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 of Burr Oak Regional Water District.
Solvents and fuels
The water Carbon Hill Water Association buys is treated by Burr Oak Regional Water District, so the results below are Burr Oak Regional Water District'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 9 samples each.
| Compound | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benzene | 5 µg/L | 9 | 0 of 9 | not detected | 0 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 5 µg/L | 9 | 0 of 9 | not detected | 0 |
| 1,2-dichloroethane | 5 µg/L | 9 | 0 of 9 | not detected | 0 |
| Trichloroethylene (TCE) | 5 µg/L | 9 | 0 of 9 | not detected | 0 |
| Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) | 5 µg/L | 9 | 0 of 9 | not detected | 0 |
| Vinyl chloride | 2 µg/L | 9 | 0 of 9 | 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 Burr Oak Regional Water District.
Farm chemicals and metals
The water Carbon Hill Water Association buys is treated by Burr Oak Regional Water District, so the results below are Burr Oak Regional Water District's.
EPA's file holds results for 8 of the nine herbicides and metals it checked. Detected: barium in 3 of 3 samples, highest 53.8 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 | 3 of 3 | 53.8 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 of Burr Oak Regional Water District.
Bacteria in the pipes
From 2012 to 2019, 3 of 94 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Carbon Hill Water Association tested positive (3.19%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 11 did. E. coli was found in 1 of 17 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 Carbon Hill Water Association buys its water from Burr Oak Regional Water District, 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 Burr Oak Regional Water District, which treats the water Carbon Hill Water Association buys.
Measured fluoride: 1 mg/L on average leaving the plants of Burr Oak Regional Water District, which supplies Carbon Hill Water Association, in 2017 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.92 to 1.04 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.
How well the service area is mapped
EPA estimated the service area of Carbon Hill Water Association 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.
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 OH3700103 (EPA ECHO).
Notable facts: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
History: en.wikipedia.org, data.epa.gov
Water quality: data.epa.gov
Treatment: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
Supply stress: data.epa.gov
