Water system
North Ridgeville City
EPA ID OH4700803 · Lorain County · 29,465 people served · owned by a local government
North Ridgeville City buys its water from Avon Lake City.
The system's record
Also connected to New London Village (Buck Creek, impounded in New London's upground reservoir), Ashland City (Jerome Fork Basin sand-and-gravel aquifer (wells)), Elyria Water Department (Lake Erie), used as a secondary or emergency supply.
- Water bodies
- Lake Erie
- Raw intakes
- Avon Lake Lake Erie
- Serves
- 23,659 people · Lorain County
- EPA ID
- OH4700311
About this area's water
Did you know
- North Ridgeville does not draw or treat a drop of its own water — it blends purchased Lake Erie water from three utilities: Avon Lake at 63.36%, Elyria at 35.26% and the Rural Lorain County Water Authority at 1.38%.
- Elyria, one of those suppliers, is several miles inland yet believes it was the first inland city in the United States to pump treated water from the Great Lakes, having made the switch from the Black River to Lake Erie…
- Elyria's 24-inch Lake Erie intake has been drawing water since 1903 and its 42-inch since 1946; zebra mussels have colonized both since 1987 but annual maintenance has kept them from clogging the pipes.
- North Ridgeville's sewage plant is not in North Ridgeville. The city wholly owns the French Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in neighboring Sheffield Village, and treats Avon's and Sheffield's wastewater there too.
- Avon Lake Regional Water has piloted what is described as North America's first electrochemical drinking-water treatment process — a $6 million system using salt and electricity to brew its own 12 percent sodium…
History6
- 1879Elyria, one of North Ridgeville's two main suppliers, erected its first real water system on the west branch of the Black River, with a low dam, brick and cement settling chambers and a wooden tank…
- 1902Elyria switched from river water to Lake Erie, becoming what it believes was the first inland city in the United States to pump treated water from the Great Lakes; the 20-inch cast iron main laid…
- 1903Elyria's 24-inch Lake Erie intake was installed; a second 42-inch intake followed in 1946. Both remain in service.
- 1975The French Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant was built by the Ohio Water Development Authority.
- 1983The City of North Ridgeville purchased the French Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant from the State of Ohio.
- 2024Avon Lake Regional Water, North Ridgeville's largest water supplier, launched a $6 million pilot of on-site electrochemical sodium hypochlorite generation, brokered by the Cleveland Water Alliance…
Source: cityofelyria.orgnridgeville.orgclevelandwateralliance.org
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
North Ridgeville buys finished drinking water rather than treating any of its own. Per its Consumer Confidence Report the split is Avon Lake Utilities Department 63.36%, Elyria Utilities Department 35.26%, and Rural Lorain County Water Authority 1.38% — all ultimately Lake Erie surface water. The…
Source: cityofelyria.orgnridgeville.orgclevelandwateralliance.org
Water pressure
North Ridgeville's own distribution pressure is not published. The one sourced figure available concerns a supplier: Elyria's plant pumps from its clearwells to consumers through…
Source: cityofelyria.org
What it costs
$6.55 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $33 a month for water.
From the City of North Ridgeville Residential & Commercial Water Rate Schedule effective February 1, 2026, billed per 100 CUBIC FEET: $5.00 per 100 cf for 0-400 cf/month, $4.80…
Water quality & impurities
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.
4 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 4 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
EPA compliance record · Avon Lake City (treats the water)
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 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Projects & plans3
Recent and current work
- Elyria water plant solids dewatering facility · $4.6 million · 2017 · completed
A $4.6 million 250,000-gallon sludge holding and dewatering tank plus centrifuge building at the lakefront plant in Lorain, in operation from June 2017.… - Avon Lake Regional Water electrochemical sodium hypochlorite pilot · $6 million · 2024 · under construction
A $6 million pilot facilitated by the Cleveland Water Alliance using technology from South Korean company Techwin: salt plus an electrochemical process to… - French Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant mix tank aeration system replacement · $6.7 million · not stated… · planned
North Ridgeville council approved $6.7 million and authorized the mayor to advertise for bids to replace the mix tank aeration system, which was failing due to…
Source: clevelandwateralliance.orgavonlakewater.orgchroniclet.com
Supply stress
Lake Erie is a large, non-depleting surface source and Elyria notes that its plant capacity means water use restrictions are not required even during peak summer demand, so supply volume is not a constraint. Quality susceptibility is a different matter: for source water assessment purposes Ohio treats all surface waters as susceptible to…
Source: cityofelyria.org
Sewers
Sanitary
The French Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is wholly owned and operated by the City of North Ridgeville, though it sits at 2350 Abbe Road in Sheffield Village rather than in North Ridgeville. It serves North Ridgeville, Avon and Sheffield through main underground interceptor sewers, runs 24 hours a day on two rotating shifts, and…
Storm
North Ridgeville operates a stormwater utility: the Public Utilities Division bills stormwater alongside water, sanitary sewer and refuse/recycling to more than 15,000 accounts. No description of the storm sewer network, outfalls or MS4 program was found on…
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
- 44039 · North Ridgeville99% of residents
Also present in 2 more ZIP codes
- 44044 · Grafton0% of residents
- 44035 · Elyria0% 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
North Ridgeville City buys its water from Avon Lake City.
1 system on record buys water from North Ridgeville City: Pine Ridge MHP.
What the records show about North Ridgeville City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes North Ridgeville City as owned by a local government. It has 13,000 service connections and serves 29,465 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
Its office telephone on EPA's record is 440-490-2083.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
North Ridgeville City buys water that Avon Lake City treats first, so the steps that count are the seller's. EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Avon Lake City: corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, fluoridation, powdered activated carbon, and sand or media filtration.
North Ridgeville City adds nothing of its own on that table.
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 North Ridgeville City since 2015.
EPA logs 4 violations of any kind since 2020: 4 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 2025, the 90th-percentile lead result at North Ridgeville 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 10 sampling periods on file for North Ridgeville 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 North Ridgeville City sent EPA, 15,198 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 7 |
| Unknown material | 6,201 |
| Not lead | 8,990 |
| All lines | 15,198 |
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 12 samples of the water entering the pipes of North Ridgeville City in 2024 to 2025 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 Avon Lake City (latest sample September 2020). Not one of the six PFAS tested (PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX and PFBS) was detected.
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 North Ridgeville City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 29.3 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 43 µg/L and the highest single sample was 69.4 µg/L, from 128 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 14.2 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 22.7 µg/L and the highest single sample was 47.3 µg/L, from 128 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 29.3 µg/L (2019) | 43 µg/L | 69.4 µg/L | 128 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 14.2 µg/L | 22.7 µg/L | 47.3 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
The water North Ridgeville City buys is treated by Avon Lake City, so the results below are Avon Lake City's.
Nitrate: the highest of 96 samples was 1.41 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2018; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 1.06 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 | 1.41 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 8 | not detected | 10 µg/L | 0 |
| Combined radium | 2 | not detected | 5 pCi/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 of Avon Lake City.
Solvents and fuels
The water North Ridgeville City buys is treated by Avon Lake City, so the results below are Avon Lake City's.
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 of Avon Lake City.
Farm chemicals and metals
The water North Ridgeville City buys is treated by Avon Lake City, so the results below are Avon Lake City's.
EPA's file holds results for 8 of the nine herbicides and metals it checked. Detected: barium in 8 of 8 samples, highest 32.9 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: atrazine in 8 samples, alachlor in 8 samples, chromium in 8 samples, cadmium in 8 samples, mercury in 8 samples, selenium in 8 samples, thallium in 9 samples.
| 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 | 8 of 8 | 32.9 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 | 9 | 0 of 9 | 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 of Avon Lake City.
Bacteria in the pipes
From 2012 to 2019, 2 of 2,999 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at North Ridgeville City tested positive (0.07%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 383 did. E. coli was never found in the 2 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 North Ridgeville City buys its water from Ashland City, a system that adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Avon Lake City, which treats the water North Ridgeville City buys.
Measured fluoride: 0.92 mg/L on average leaving the plants of Avon Lake City, which supplies North Ridgeville City, in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.91 to 1.09 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 8 UCMR 5 samples at North Ridgeville City, last sampled in 2025 (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
The water North Ridgeville City buys is treated by Avon Lake City, so the results below are Avon Lake City's.
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 8 times in 285 raw-water samples, across 4 bloom seasons (2016 to 2025); the highest raw-water result was 0.72 µg/L on October 4, 2016. The highest raw-water result since 2024 was 0.254 µg/L.
Microcystin was never detected in treated water (285 samples).
In all, 570 samples from 2016 to 2026, the latest on August 25, 2026.
| Water | Samples | Detections | Highest result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw water, at the intake | 285 | 8 | 0.72 µg/L |
| Treated water | 285 | 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
EPA estimated the service area of North Ridgeville City with a computer model rather than drawing it from the utility's map, so its edges are approximate.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 35,357 residents are inside the boundary, 120% of the 29,465 people North Ridgeville 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 — 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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH4700803 (EPA ECHO).
North Ridgeville City's own pages: clevelandwateralliance.org, countyoffice.org
Notable facts: cityofelyria.org, nridgeville.org, nridgeville.org, clevelandwateralliance.org
History: cityofelyria.org, nridgeville.org, clevelandwateralliance.org
Water pressure: cityofelyria.org
Capital projects: clevelandwateralliance.org, avonlakewater.org, chroniclet.com, cityofelyria.org
Rates: nridgeville.org, nridgeville.org, library.municode.com, nridgeville.org
Sewers: nridgeville.org, nridgeville.org, nridgeville.org
Treatment: cityofelyria.org, nridgeville.org, clevelandwateralliance.org
Supply stress: cityofelyria.org
