Water system
Elyria Water Department
EPA ID OH4700411 · Lorain County · 68,000 people served · owned by a local government
Elyria Water Department treats its own water from Lake Erie.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Lake Erie
- Raw intakes
- Elyria Department Lake Eri
- Serves
- 68,000 people · Lorain County
- EPA ID
- OH4700411
Elyria's intake and treatment plant sit on Lake Erie in Lorain; water is pumped about 8 miles to Elyria. Elyria also wholesales to Amherst and North Ridgeville.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Elyria's water plant is not in Elyria - it sits at 3628 West Erie Ave in the City of Lorain, and the water is pumped about 8 miles south to reach Elyria taps.
- The plant has run continuously since 1902. In 2024 it pumped over 4.48 billion gallons and served more than 120,000 people across several communities.
- Emergency interconnections with Avon Lake and Lorain County Rural Water can move up to 8 million gallons a day in either direction. Neither was used in 2024.
- Elyria's meters capture a reading every hour and radio it to city collectors; a leak icon warns of a possible leak, and the display lights up only under a flashlight.
History5
- 1879Elyria's first waterworks pumped untreated West Branch Black River water straight into the distribution system.
- 1898City leaders concluded the river water was unsafe after outbreaks of disease were traced back to it.
- 1901-1903Elyria bought 6.4 acres on the Lorain lakefront for under $3,000 and began pumping Lake Erie water 8 miles south.
- 1919-1922Bonds issued July 1919 built a modern 8-MGD plant; coagulation basin added May 1921, new low- and high-service pumps in 1922.
- 2024The plant pumped over 4.48 billion gallons and served more than 120,000 people across several communities.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Conventional surface-water treatment - coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and chlorination - at the plant at 3628 West Erie Ave, Lorain, fed by two Lake Erie intakes. Fluoride is added. Water is then pumped about 8 miles south to Elyria's five towers.
Water pressure
Not published. Pressure is held by five water towers and two remote pump stations on 230+ miles of main with 2,600 hydrants and 5,043 valves.
What it costs
$6.20 per 1,000 gallons
2025 inside-city: $4.64 per hcf (~$6.20 per 1,000 gal) plus a $10.68/mo service charge; outside city $7.01 per hcf plus $16.14. Effective Jan 1, 2025.
Water quality & impurities8
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM (total trihalomethanes) Range 13.9-70.7 ppb; chlorination byproduct, no violation. | 52.175 ppb | 80 ppb | 2024 |
| HAA5 (haloacetic acids) Range 0.0-24.5 ppb; chlorination byproduct, no violation. | 19.25 ppb | 60 ppb | 2024 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples exceeded the action level. | 1.07 ppb | 15 ppb (AL) | 2024 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples exceeded the action level. | 0.126 ppm | 1.3 ppm (AL) | 2024 |
| Nitrate Range <0.1-0.89; fertilizer runoff and septic leaching. Well below the limit. | 0.89 ppm | 10 ppm | 2024 |
| Fluoride Range 0.9172-0.9919; natural erosion plus dental-health additive. | 0.97188 ppm | 4 ppm | 2024 |
| Turbidity CCR table shows a 0.22 NTU high; its text says 0.17. 100% of samples met the limit. | 0.22 NTU | 0.3 NTU in 95%… | 2024 |
| Barium Drilling and refinery discharge plus natural deposits; far below the MCL. | 0.022 ppm | 2 ppm | 2024 |
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 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
Projects & plans2
Recent and current work
- Lead service line replacement (Ohio EPA DWAF) · $922,062 · 2021
Ohio EPA principal forgiveness covering 225+ households; work was to begin March 2021. No completion notice found.
Planned or needed
- EPA-mandated water and sewer upgrades · 2025 · needed
The 2025 rate notice cites EPA-mandated Black River and Lake Erie projects plus aging infrastructure as the reason for the increases.
Supply stress
Lake Erie gives an essentially unlimited supply, so there is no drought stress. The 2024 CCR flags susceptibility from nearby Beaver Creek and Martin's Run, municipal wastewater discharges, air deposition, urban and farm runoff, leaking tanks, rail and vehicle spills, shipping and boating.
Sewers
Sanitary
The City of Elyria Wastewater Pollution Control Plant treats the city's sewage. Combined sewers remain in the oldest section, where designed emergency overflow points can release mostly rainwater plus some sewage to the Black River in heavy rain; the city says it is working to control them.
Storm
Elyria bills a separate stormwater utility charge alongside water, sewer and sanitation, with its own hotline and site (elyriastormwater.com). City ordinance 521.11 bans swimming in the Black River within city limits.
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
- 44035 · Elyria81% 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
Elyria Water Department does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
1 system on record buys water from Elyria Water Department: Amherst City.
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
Elyria Water Department's own pages: cityofelyria.org, cityofelyria.org, cityoflorain.org