Water system
Painesville City
EPA ID OH4301611 · Lake County · 31,728 people served · owned by a local government
Painesville City treats its own water from Lake Erie.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Lake Erie
- Raw intakes
- Painesville Lake Erie Intak
Painesville Lake Erie Int - Serves
- 31,728 people · Lake County
- EPA ID
- OH4301611
About this area's water
Did you know
- Painesville's water plant is not in Painesville: it sits at 9565 Headlands Road in Mentor, off Titus Beach between Headlands State Park and the Mentor Marsh.
- In 2025 the system pumped 1.253 billion gallons through 157 miles of main, averaging 3.43 million gallons a day for about 35,000 people.
- Since October 2023 Painesville has supplied all of the drinking water for the Fairport Harbor public water system.
- The original 1913 intake was abandoned in 2010 after sand and zebra mussels clogged it, and divers capped its 1950s successor in January 2021.
History5
- 1896Painesville's water treatment plant was established, drawing from Lake Erie.
- 1913A 24-inch intake extending 1,200 feet into Lake Erie was built; it was abandoned in 2010 after sand and zebra mussel infestation.
- 2008A Water Pollution Control Loan Fund upgrade improved aeration control, clarifiers, tertiary filtration, grit removal and odor control at the WPCP.
- 2020A new 60-inch intake extending 4,000 feet into Lake Erie came online; divers capped the 1950s 36-inch intake in January 2021.
- 2021A powdered activated carbon feed able to dose over 40 ppm at full 7.5 MGD capacity went online in July to remove algal toxins.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Lake Erie water treated at the 7.5 MGD Headlands Road plant (3.43 MGD average in 2025): filtration, chlorine disinfection, fluoridation and TOC removal for byproduct control, plus a powdered activated carbon feed added in 2021 to strip algal toxins.
Water pressure
No psi published; four pressure zones span ground elevations of 583-1,150 feet, served by three towers, a standpipe, an above-ground tank and five pump stations.
What it costs
$4.43 per 1,000 gallons
2026 in-city rate $3.31 per 100 cubic feet (748 gal), unchanged from 2025; outside city $4.93. Plus a $14.00 monthly improvement fee on a 5/8-inch meter.
Water quality & impurities8
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Chlorination byproduct; quarterly sampling, range 20.9-61.9 ppb; no violation. | 51.8 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Chlorination byproduct; range 10.8-28.7 ppb; no violation. | 23.1 ppb | 60 | 2025 |
| Nitrate Monthly sampling; range 0.0-0.71 ppm, well under the MCL. | 0.71 ppm | 10 | 2025 |
| Fluoride Added for dental health; range 0.79-1.01 ppm. | 1.00 ppm | 4 | 2025 |
| Chlorine (residual disinfectant) Continuous monitoring; range 1.29-1.54 ppm. | 1.47 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Turbidity Range 0.03-0.20 NTU, highest single reading 0.23; 100% of samples met the limit. | 0.20 NTU | 0.3 (TT) | 2025 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 30 samples; all below the 2 ppb detection limit, 0 of 30 above the action level. | 0 ppb | 15 (action… | 2024 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 30 samples; none exceeded the action level. | 0.09 ppm | 1.3 (action… | 2024 |
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2024 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
1 violation of any kind logged since 2020: 1 for required testing that was missed or reported late.
Projects & plans5
Recent and current work
- New 60-inch Lake Erie raw water intake · 2020 · completed
Extends 4,000 feet into Lake Erie for redundancy and algal-bloom protection; a 2015 Ohio EPA fact sheet estimated $10-12M on a 0% WSRLA loan. - Powdered activated carbon feed system · 2021 · completed
Online July 2021; doses over 40 ppm at the plant's full 7.5 MGD capacity to remove algal toxins from Lake Erie influent. - Water Pollution Control Plant tertiary and aeration upgrade · 2008 · completed
Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund financed clarifier mechanisms, filter media, aeration and grit controls, polymer feed, generator and odor control. - Chlorine room reconstruction, Phase 1 · 2025 · completed
Phase 1 finished in 2025 alongside installation of the #6 high-service pump natural gas engine and a sludge truck replacement. - West Eagle and East Walnut Street water main replacements · 2025 · completed
Distribution renewal completed in 2025 along with structural steel repairs and painting of the Crile water tower.
Supply stress
Lake Erie is not scarcity-limited, but harmful algal blooms have reached the Headlands Beach area, driving the deeper 4,000-foot intake and the 2021 powdered carbon system; no microcystins were detected in 2025. Sand, zebra mussels and frazil ice fouled the earlier intakes.
Sewers
Sanitary
City-run Water Pollution Control Plant at 1170 N. State St. serves about 20,000 people in five stages - preliminary, primary, secondary, tertiary sand filtration and disinfection - discharging to the Grand River, and has taken trucked septage since 2004. No CSO or consent decree found.
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.
Main supplier in 2 ZIP codes
Serves
Main water supplier in 2 ZIP codes
- 44045 · Grand River100% of residents
- 44077 · Painesville45% 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
Painesville City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
1 system on record buys water from Painesville City: Fairport Harbor Village.
What the records show about Painesville City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Painesville City as owned by a local government. It has 11,335 service connections and serves 31,728 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
EPA's record says it has substantially implemented source water protection under Ohio's program, dating the program from 2025. Its office telephone on EPA's record is 440-392-9563.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Painesville City: corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, fluoridation, powdered activated carbon, 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 Painesville City since 2015.
EPA logs 1 violation of any kind since 2020: 1 for required testing that was missed or reported late.
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 2024, the 90th-percentile lead result at Painesville City 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 4.2 ppb, in the period ending December 2018.
EPA has 3 sampling periods on file for Painesville 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 Painesville City sent EPA, 11,331 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 1 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 163 |
| Unknown material | 342 |
| Not lead | 10,825 |
| All lines | 11,331 |
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 6 samples of the water entering the pipes of Painesville City in 2023 to 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 Painesville City (latest sample August 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 Painesville City 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 Painesville City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 43.8 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 44.4 µg/L and the highest single sample was 79.1 µg/L, from 128 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 26.7 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 27 µg/L and the highest single sample was 56.2 µg/L, from 128 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 43.8 µg/L (2019) | 44.4 µg/L | 79.1 µg/L | 128 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 26.7 µg/L | 27 µg/L | 56.2 µg/L | 128 |
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: the highest of 96 samples was 1.17 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2017; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 0.82 mg/L. No sample was over the limit of 10 mg/L. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants.
Arsenic was not detected in 8 samples (limit 10 µg/L).
| Contaminant | Samples | Highest result | Limit | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 96 | 1.17 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 8 | 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 8 samples each.
| Compound | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benzene | 5 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 5 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| 1,2-dichloroethane | 5 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Trichloroethylene (TCE) | 5 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) | 5 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Vinyl chloride | 2 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | 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. Detected: barium in 7 of 8 samples, highest 24 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: atrazine, alachlor, chromium, cadmium, mercury, selenium, and thallium, in 8 samples each.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Chromium | Metal | 100 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Cadmium | Metal | 5 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Barium | Metal | 2,000 µg/L | 8 | 7 of 8 | 24 µg/L | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Selenium | Metal | 50 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Thallium | Metal | 2 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | 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 2,800 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Painesville City tested positive (0.04%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 364 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 Painesville City adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Painesville City.
Measured fluoride: 0.97 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.77 to 1.04 mg/L across 8 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 4 UCMR 5 samples at Painesville City, last sampled in 2024 (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.
Algal toxins
Ohio EPA tests for microcystin, a toxin that harmful algal blooms can release, in raw water at the intake and in treated water.
At the intake, microcystin was detected 15 times in 243 raw-water samples, across 4 bloom seasons (2016 to 2019); the highest raw-water result was 2.034 µg/L on September 25, 2017. There has been no raw-water detection since 2024.
In treated water, microcystin was detected 1 time; the highest result was 0.313 µg/L (May 2018), above the 0.3 µg/L level for children under six.
In all, 355 samples from 2016 to 2026, the latest on August 25, 2026.
| Water | Samples | Detections | Highest result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw water, at the intake | 243 | 15 | 2.034 µg/L |
| Treated water | 112 | 1 | 0.313 µg/L |
The ten-day advisory levels for treated water are 0.3 µg/L for children under six and 1.6 µg/L for everyone else. Any detection at the intake triggers more frequent testing until two clean weeks.
Source: Ohio EPA public water system harmful algal bloom monitoring, 2016 to present (HAB data, fetched September 2026).
Water and sewer bills
Ohio EPA's 2023 rate survey puts the water bill at Painesville City for a household using 5,000 gallons a month at $412 a year, about $34 a month.
The sewer bill in the same survey is $460 a year at 5,000 gallons a month.
| Use | Water, per year | Sewer, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 gallons a month | $286 | $276 |
| 5,000 gallons a month | $412 | $460 |
| 8,000 gallons a month | $564 | $737 |
The survey lists it as “Painesville”. 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
The service area drawn on the map for Painesville City comes from the utility's own map.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 26,803 residents are inside the boundary, 84% of the 31,728 people Painesville 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 — 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 OH4301611 (EPA ECHO).
Painesville City's own pages: painesville.com
