Water system
Newark City
EPA ID OH4502314 · Licking County · 49,934 people served · owned by a local government
Newark City treats its own water from North Fork Licking River.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- North Fork Licking River
- Raw intakes
- Fork Licking Reser
- Serves
- 49,934 people · Licking County
- EPA ID
- OH4502314
About this area's water
Did you know
- In 1922 Newark became the first municipal waterworks anywhere to scrape settled sludge out of its basins by machine rather than by hand.
- Newark was the first water system in Ohio, and among the first in the country, to disinfect with ultraviolet light - a step it added in 2004.
- The plant deliberately drives its water to a pH of about 10.8 with lime to crash out hardness, then bubbles carbon dioxide back in to bring it down to about 8.8 before filtering.
- Only 16% of Newark's sewers are combined, but that sixth of the system still feeds 20 permitted overflow outfalls to the Licking River and Raccoon Creek.
History5
- 1886The privately owned Newark Water Company began operating a pumping station and distribution system.
- 1910City of Newark bought the private water company and merged it with the municipal plant it had built in 1905 on the North Fork.
- 1922Newark became the first municipal waterworks to remove settled sludge by mechanical means, adding softening and filtration at the same time.
- 2004Plant became the first in Ohio and one of the first in the United States to disinfect drinking water with ultraviolet light.
- 2016-2020Phase II Combined Sewer Overflow Long-Term Control Plan submitted Dec. 31, 2016, amended Feb. 21, 2020, and approved by Ohio EPA on March 27, 2020.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Lime softening plant, 15 MGD design, drawing directly from the North Fork Licking River (~75 sq mi watershed) through riverbank mechanical screens. Pre-oxidation with permanganate, chlorine and powdered carbon; rapid mix with lime and ferric sulfate; flocculation; three sedimentation basins…
Water pressure
not published; a finished water pump station with four pumps supplies pressure to the distribution system, but no psi figure is given
What it costs
$6.35 per 1,000 gallons
Effective Jan. 1, 2026: $4.75 per 100 cubic feet for the first 350 units ($6.35 per 1,000 gal). Combined water and sewer minimum bill is $31.77 per month; sewer adds a $9.33…
Water quality & impurities8
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) Compliant on a running average, but single samples ranged as high as 106 ppb | 58.375 ppb | MCL 80 | 2025 |
| Haloacetic acids (HAA5) Range 5.8-55.0 | 27.65 ppb | MCL 60 | 2025 |
| Nitrate About 60% of the MCL; range 0.24-6.02, reflecting agricultural runoff to the river | 6.02 ppm | MCL 10 | 2025 |
| Atrazine Herbicide from row crops; range below detection to 0.59 | 0.23 ppb | MCL 3 | 2025 |
| Fluoride Added deliberately; the plant has fluoridated since 1956 | 1.00 ppm | MCL 4 | 2025 |
| Total chlorine Range 1.19-1.66 | 1.39 ppm | MRDL 4 | 2025 |
| Lead (90th percentile) Non-detect at the 90th percentile; 0 of 31 samples over the action level | ND ppb | AL 15 | 2023 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 31 samples over the action level | 0.021 ppm | AL 1.3 | 2023 |
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2023 (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).
Projects & plans4
Recent and current work
- High rate treatment facility at Newark WWTP · completed
Ballasted flocculation adding 28 MGD of wet-weather solids removal and disinfection; Ohio EPA proposes reclassifying its Outfall 034 from a CSO to a bypass. - Newark WWTP re-rating to 9.0 MGD · 2026 · completed
Permit-to-Install DSWPTI-260365 issued April 7, 2026 raising average daily design flow from 8.0 to 9.0 MGD; plant last upgraded 2022. - CSO Long-Term Control Plan Bundle 1 · completed
Implemented over the last five years; an Oct. 24, 2025 programmatic review found the projects performed better than expected.
Planned or needed
- CSO Long-Term Control Plan Bundles 2 and 3 · planned
Separations, interceptor upsizing, relief sewers and headworks work targeting 11 overflow events per typical year and over 99% wet-weather capture; the 16…
Supply stress
A river-fed supply on a small ~75 sq mi agricultural watershed: nitrate reached 6.02 ppm against a 10 ppm MCL, atrazine is routinely detected, and Cryptosporidium turned up in 5 of 11 raw water samples in the CCR's cited monitoring. Individual TTHM samples ran to 106 ppb. Low river flow is the standing supply risk.
Sewers
Sanitary
City of Newark operates its own WWTP (built 1948, last upgraded 2022) discharging to the Licking River, then the Muskingum and Ohio. Average daily design flow was re-rated from 8.0 to 9.0 MGD in April 2026; peak secondary capacity is 20 MGD, with overflow to a 1.0-MG equalization basin and then a 28 MGD high rate treatment system. The…
Storm
Newark runs a separate stormwater utility under Ordinances 17-21 and 05-55, created for Clean Water Act Phase II compliance and billed per equivalent residential unit - $8.05/ERU/month effective Jan. 1, 2026, rising to $9.60 by 2030 under Resolution 25-69.
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
- 43055 · Newark75% 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
Newark City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Newark City.
What the records show about Newark City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Newark City as owned by a local government. It has 19,331 service connections and serves 49,934 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 2023. Its office telephone on EPA's record is 740-670-7947.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Newark City: corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, fluoridation, ion-exchange softening, lime softening, powdered activated carbon, sand or media filtration, and ultraviolet disinfection.
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 Newark City 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 2023, the 90th-percentile lead result at Newark 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.
EPA has 3 sampling periods on file for Newark City 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 Newark City sent EPA, 19,046 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 3 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 4,103 |
| Unknown material | 2,789 |
| Not lead | 12,151 |
| All lines | 19,046 |
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 5 samples of the water entering the pipes of Newark City in 2023 to 2025 and measured 29 PFAS.
PFOA and PFOS were not detected, against a federal limit of 4 ng/L each.
The highest PFAS result was PFBA 9.5 ng/L.
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Newark City (latest sample December 2019). 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 Newark City as sampled, most recently August 2026.
| Compound | Highest result | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| PFOA | not detected | 4 ng/L |
| PFOS | not detected | 4 ng/L |
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 Newark City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 35.8 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 58.3 µg/L and the highest single sample was 119 µg/L, from 134 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 12.7 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 25 µg/L and the highest single sample was 58.4 µg/L, from 132 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 35.8 µg/L (2019) | 58.3 µg/L | 119 µg/L | 134 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 12.7 µg/L | 25 µg/L | 58.4 µg/L | 132 |
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 4.2 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2015; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 2.33 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 | 4.2 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: atrazine in 11 of 27 samples, highest 6.65 µg/L (limit 3, 1 over); barium in 3 of 8 samples, highest 10.6 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: alachlor in 27 samples, chromium in 10 samples, cadmium in 10 samples, mercury in 8 samples, selenium in 8 samples, thallium in 8 samples.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 27 | 11 of 27 | 6.65 µg/L | 1 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 27 | 0 of 27 | not detected | 0 |
| Chromium | Metal | 100 µg/L | 10 | 0 of 10 | not detected | 0 |
| Cadmium | Metal | 5 µg/L | 10 | 0 of 10 | not detected | 0 |
| Barium | Metal | 2,000 µg/L | 8 | 3 of 8 | 10.6 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, 3 of 5,093 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Newark City tested positive (0.06%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 693 did. E. coli was never found in the 9 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 Newark City adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Newark City.
Measured fluoride: 0.9 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.5 to 1.02 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 Newark City, 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.
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.
No microcystin was detected in the 195 raw-water samples.
Microcystin was never detected in treated water (74 samples).
In all, 269 samples from 2016 to 2026, the latest on August 12, 2026.
| Water | Samples | Detections | Highest result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw water, at the intake | 195 | 0 | not detected |
| Treated water | 74 | 0 | not detected |
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).
How well the service area is mapped
The service area drawn on the map for Newark City comes from the utility's own map.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 46,823 residents are inside the boundary, 94% of the 49,934 people Newark 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 — 1 ZIP code 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 OH4502314 (EPA ECHO).
Newark City's own pages: newarkohio.gov
