Water system
Lorain City
EPA ID OH4700711 · Lorain County · 64,152 people served · owned by a local government
Lorain City treats its own water from Lake Erie.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Lake Erie
- Raw intakes
- Lorain Lake Erie
- Serves
- 64,152 people · Lorain County
- EPA ID
- OH4700711
Lorain City's own intake draws directly from Lake Erie; it also sells water on to Amherst and Sheffield Lake.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Lorain claims the first plant in the United States built expressly to filter all of a city's water for bacteria, authorized in 1896 after a deadly typhoid epidemic in 1893.
- Potassium permanganate is dosed right at the Lake Erie intake, not for people but to stop invasive zebra mussels from clogging it.
- Lorain has fed orthophosphate for corrosion control since 2010 and has pulled out about 1,500 lead service lines with nearly $2.5 million in Ohio EPA money.
- Lorain's emergency backups are Vermilion, Amherst and Sheffield Lake - all Lake Erie systems supplied by Elyria and Avon Lake. None sent Lorain any water in 2024.
History4
- 1884Lorain's first municipal water plant and distribution system began operating on untreated Black River water.
- 1893A typhoid epidemic struck Lorain, attributed to the lack of filtration.
- 1896A filtration plant was authorized; the city claims it as the first US plant built expressly to filter all of a city's water for bacteria.
- 2010The plant began feeding orthophosphate for corrosion control to keep lead from leaching out of service lines.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Potassium permanganate at the Lake Erie intake for zebra mussels, debris screening, chlorine at plant entry, alum coagulation, flocculation with caustic soda and powdered carbon, sedimentation, then GAC/sand/gravel filters; fluoride, chlorine and orthophosphate last.
Water pressure
Not published in the sources found.
What it costs
Not retrieved. The city's rates page returns 404 and neither water quality report lists rates, so no per-1,000-gallon figure could be confirmed.
Water quality & impurities8
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM (total trihalomethanes) Range 20.1-62.4 ppb; chlorination byproduct, no violation. | 51.4 ppb | 80 ppb | 2024 |
| HAA5 (haloacetic acids) Range 7-24.9 ppb; chlorination byproduct, no violation. | 24.3 ppb | 60 ppb | 2024 |
| Lead (90th percentile) Latest round. One site (LC235) hit 34 ppb, but 1 of 30 above the AL is not a violation. | ND ppb | 15 ppb (AL) | 2022 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 30 sites exceeded the action level. | 0.067 ppm | 1.3 ppm (AL) | 2022 |
| Nitrate Range ND-1.35; well below the limit. | 1.35 ppm | 10 ppm | 2024 |
| Fluoride Range 0.6-1.14; dental-health additive plus natural erosion. | 1.01 ppm | 4 ppm | 2024 |
| Turbidity Highest single reading; 100% of monthly samples met the limit. | 0.26 NTU | 0.3 NTU in 95%… | 2024 |
| E. coli All repeat samples were negative; not a violation. No such detection in the 2024 report. | 1 positive of… n/a | MCL not… | 2023 |
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 & plans1
Recent and current work
- Lead Service Line Replacement Program · $2.5 million · under construction
Nearly $2.5 million in Ohio EPA principal forgiveness has funded removal of about 1,500 lead service lines to date.
Supply stress
Lake Erie supplies ample raw water with no quantity limit. The 2024 source water assessment names the nearby Black River, commercial shipping and boating spills, industrial and farm runoff, river dredging, urban stormwater, sewage discharges and combined sewer overflows as risks.
Sewers
Sanitary
Lorain Utilities runs water and sanitary sewer service, overseen by the city's Sewer and Water Advisory Board. The 2024 source water assessment names municipal and home sewage treatment discharges and combined sewer overflows in the Black River watershed as risks to the drinking water intake.
Storm
Not confirmed. Neither water quality report nor the city's water pages state how much of the system is separate versus combined, and no dedicated stormwater fee was found in the sources reviewed.
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.
Main supplier in 3 ZIP codes
Serves
Main water supplier in 3 ZIP codes
- 44053 · Lorain96% of residents
- 44052 · Lorain95% of residents
- 44055 · Lorain82% 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
Lorain City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
1 system on record buys water from Lorain City: Northern Ohio Rural Water.
Photograph
On the map
Show this system's territory on the map — 3 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
Lorain City's own pages: cityoflorain.org, cityoflorain.org