Water system
Jackson, City Of
EPA ID OH4000111 · Jackson County · 9,691 people served · owned by a local government
Jackson, City Of treats its own water from Jisco Lake + Hammertown Lake (Jackson City Reservoir).
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Jisco Lake, Hammertown Lake
- Raw intakes
- Jisco Lake
Hammertown Lake - Serves
- 9,691 people · Jackson County
- EPA ID
- OH4000111
Two city-owned reservoir lakes near Jackson serve as blended surface-water intakes; no wells used.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Hammertown Lake, Jackson's working reservoir, sits behind a 60-foot-high, 1,200-foot-long earthen dam commissioned in 1954 and still owned by the city; it holds about 4,200 acre-feet at normal pool.
- Jackson does not blend its two lakes: Hammertown is the source and Jisco is the backup, per the city's own 2025 water quality report - a common misreading of this system.
- The waterline the state paid $1.6 million to replace on South Street had been in the ground since about 1898 - galvanized setters, potential lead joints, and so odd-sized the city struggled to find parts when it broke.
- About a quarter of the water Jackson treats never reaches a customer: the state put the city's water-loss rate at 24% when it awarded the 2023 waterline grant.
- In June 2025 Jackson had to mail every customer a violation notice - not for anything in the water, but for missing the federal deadline to inventory its lead service lines.
Source: damsoftheworld.comjacksonohio.uscontent.govdelivery.com
History6
- 1898The South Street waterline (Main Street to Ohio Avenue) is installed - still in service 123 years later, with galvanized setters and potential lead joints, when the state funded its replacement.
- 1954Hammertown Lake Dam is commissioned - a 60-foot-high, 1,200-foot-long earthen embankment designed by Jones and Henry Engineers, built for water supply and owned by the City of Jackson.
- 2003Ohio EPA completes the Source Water Assessment for the Jackson public water system.
- 2021Jackson receives a $1.01 million Ohio BUILDS grant (Round 2) for the Mill Street Area Sewer Extension, serving about 24 unsewered households.
- 2023Jackson receives a $1,625,046 Ohio BUILDS grant (Round 5) to replace the failing 1898 South Street waterline; the award notes the city's 24% water-loss rate.
- 2024The city fails to submit its initial lead and galvanized service line inventory to Ohio EPA by the October 16, 2024 federal deadline - a drinking water violation.
Source: jacksonohio.uscontent.govdelivery.comcontent.govdelivery.com
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Surface water from two city-owned reservoirs, filtered and chlorinated. CORRECTION to the draft: Hammertown Lake is the working source and Jisco Lake is a backup - the 2025 CCR says the city 'receives its water from Hammertown lake and utilizes Jisco Lake as a backup water source,' not a blended…
Source: jacksonohio.us
Water pressure
Not published. The 2025 CCR's backflow section discusses low-pressure conditions only generically (hydrant flushing, main breaks, fires, high demand) and gives no system psi or…
Source: jacksonohio.us
What it costs
Not published online. The city's Utility Office page (which bills electric, water, sewer and garbage together) carries no rate table and points customers to the American Legal…
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range 27.30-80.2 ppb. The high end of the range exceeds the 80 ppb MCL, but compliance is on the locational running… | 62.53 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Range 16-29.8 ppb. Chlorination byproduct, expected in a surface-water system with high organic load. | 24.93 ppb | 60 | 2025 |
| Chlorine Range 1.06-1.44 ppm. Disinfectant residual. | 1.30 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Fluoride Range 1.06-1.17 ppm. | 1.17 ppm | 4 | 2025 |
| Nitrate Range 0.1-0.13 ppm. Very low. | 0.13 ppm | 10 | 2025 |
| Barium Erosion of natural deposits; far below the MCL. | 0.011 ppm | 2 | 2025 |
| Radium-228 Naturally occurring radioactive material; about 45% of the combined radium-226/228 MCL. Monitored less than annually.… | 2.25 pCi/L | 5 | 2021 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 20 samples above the action level; all repeat samples below detection. | <2.0 ppb | 15 (AL) | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) Range 0.00-0.057 ppm; 0 of 20 samples above the action level. | 0.033 ppm | 1.3 (AL) | 2025 |
| Turbidity Highest recorded 2025 result per the CCR narrative; 100% of monthly samples met the limit. The CCR's own table prints… | 0.12 NTU | TT (0.3 NTU in… | 2025 |
Source: jacksonohio.us
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2024Lead and Copper Rule (lead) · treatment technique violation · returned to compliance
5 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 4 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
Projects & plans3
Recent and current work
- South Street waterline replacement (Main Street to Ohio Avenue) · $1.6 million · 2023
Ohio BUILDS Round 5 grant announced July 20, 2023: about 5,800 linear feet of 8-inch waterline, 32 gate valves, 3,000 linear feet of service line, 100 service… - Mill Street Area Sewer Extension · $1 million · 2021
Ohio BUILDS Round 2 grant: public sewer to about 24 households with failing home sewage treatment systems on Mill, Putnam, Ohio, Summit and Crossin streets…
Source: content.govdelivery.comcontent.govdelivery.com
Planned or needed
- Complete and submit the initial lead and galvanized service line inventory to Ohio EPA · 2025-2026 · needed
The city missed the October 16, 2024 federal deadline and issued a public violation notice on June 12, 2025. As of that notice the inventory was partially…
Source: jacksonohio.us
Supply stress
Ohio EPA's 2003 source water assessment treats all Ohio surface waters as susceptible to contamination - readily accessible, and contaminable by chemicals and pathogens that can reach the intake with little warning. Jackson's drinking water source protection area specifically contains home sewage disposal system discharges, runoff from…
Sewers
Sanitary
City-owned and city-operated. Jackson runs its own wastewater treatment plant at 225 Wood Ave (740-286-1137), staffed with a chief plant operator, Class II and Class III operators, a plant repairman and a pretreatment coordinator, and it operates the collection system and pump stations. Plant capacity, receiving stream and NPDES permit…
Storm
Not published. The city website has no stormwater utility, MS4 permit, or storm sewer page.
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
- 45640 · Jackson47% of residents
Also present in 1 more ZIP code
- 45692 · Wellston1% 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
Jackson, City Of does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Jackson, City Of.
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
Jackson, City Of's own pages: athensconservancy.org, athensconservancy.org
Notable facts: damsoftheworld.com, jacksonohio.us, content.govdelivery.com
History: jacksonohio.us, content.govdelivery.com, content.govdelivery.com, damsoftheworld.com
Water quality: jacksonohio.us
Planned work: jacksonohio.us
Water pressure: jacksonohio.us
Capital projects: content.govdelivery.com, content.govdelivery.com
Rates: jacksonohio.us, codelibrary.amlegal.com
Sewers: jacksonohio.us, jacksonohio.us, content.govdelivery.com
Treatment: jacksonohio.us
Supply stress: jacksonohio.us, content.govdelivery.com