Water system
Sylvania City
EPA ID OH4801303 · Lucas County · 21,618 people served · owned by a local government
Sylvania City buys its water from Toledo City Of.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Lake Erie
- Raw intakes
- Toledo Lake Erie
- Serves
- 360,000 people · Lucas County
- EPA ID
- OH4801411
Toledo's Collins Park WTP draws directly from Lake Erie and also serves as wholesale supplier to numerous surrounding systems.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Sylvania draws no raw water at all — every gallon comes finished from Toledo's Collins Park plant, which Toledo calls the largest water softening plant on Lake Erie, filtering 75 million gallons a day for about half a…
- In 2014 the toxic bloom sat over Toledo's Lake Erie intake and the resulting 'do not drink' order — August 2 to 4 — covered Sylvania alongside Toledo, Maumee, Perrysburg and Ottawa Hills, emptying bottled-water shelves…
- Sylvania's 2024 report shows zero detections across 29 PFAS compounds plus lithium sampled over a 12-month period in 2023-24.
- The city keeps emergency connections to both Toledo and Lucas County; it used the Lucas County one for 0 gallons in 2024, and on average needs it about one day a year.
- Across four years of Toledo intake monitoring — 48 samples, April 2015 to March 2019 — laboratories found exactly one Cryptosporidium cell.
History4
- 2014August 2-4: microcystin from a Lake Erie harmful algal bloom over Toledo's intake triggered a 'do not drink' advisory covering Toledo and the suburbs it supplies, Sylvania among them — roughly…
- 2015-2019Toledo completed the second round of Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule source-water monitoring at its intake, April 2015 through March 2019: 48 samples tested for Giardia and…
- 2019October: Sylvania City Council voted to sign the regional water agreement with Toledo, a 40-year uniform water-supply contract, joining Toledo, Lucas County, Maumee, Perrysburg, Whitehouse, Monroe…
- 2023-2024Sylvania's system was sampled under the federal UCMR5 program and Ohio's PFAS Sampling Initiative: 29 PFAS compounds plus lithium over a 12-month period, none detected in the finished drinking water.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Sylvania treats no water of its own. It buys 100% finished water from the City of Toledo Department of Public Utilities, whose Collins Park Water Treatment Plant draws from Lake Erie's western basin, softens, filters and disinfects — Toledo describes it as the largest water softening plant on Lake…
Source: cityofsylvania.comtoledo.oh.gov
Water pressure
Not published in any source reviewed. Neither Sylvania's CCR nor Toledo's water pages give distribution pressure figures.
What it costs
$9.45 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $71 a month for water.
City of Sylvania water rate effective 11-17-2025, as published in the Lucas County Sanitary Engineer's rate summary: $9.45 per 1,000 gallons inside the city ($70.69 per 1,000…
Source: co.lucas.oh.us
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range 28.7-70.9 ppb; disinfection byproduct. The high end of the range exceeds 80% of the MCL. | 48.9 ppb | 80 | 2024 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Range 7.3-15.6 ppb; disinfection byproduct. | 10.9 ppb | 60 | 2024 |
| Total Chlorine Range 0.90-1.08 ppm; additive used to control microbes. | 1.06 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2024 |
| Turbidity Range 0.03-0.21 NTU. 90.9% was the lowest monthly percentage of Toledo's samples meeting the turbidity limit in 2024… | 0.21 NTU | 1 (TT); 95% of… | 2024 |
| Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Range 1.00-2.31. The running annual average ratio of TOC removed to TOC required to be removed; relates to disinfection… | 1.31 removal… | TT (ratio above… | 2024 |
| Nitrate Range <0.2-1.66 ppm; well below the MCL. | 0.88 ppm | 10 | 2024 |
| Fluoride Range 0.96-1.05 ppm; water additive to promote strong teeth. | 1.00 ppm | 4 | 2024 |
| Lead (90th percentile) No individual result over the action level; 0 of 30 samples above it. | <4 ppb | 15 (action… | 2024 |
| Copper (90th percentile) No individual result over the action level; 0 of 30 samples above it. | 0.013 ppm | 1.3 (action… | 2024 |
| Sodium Range 7.47-20.90 ppm; reported for dietary-sodium awareness. | 11.67 ppm | no standard… | 2024 |
Source: cityofsylvania.com
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).
EPA compliance record · Toledo City Of (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.
Supply stress
Sylvania's exposure is entirely inherited from its source. Lake Erie's western basin sees recurring harmful algal blooms fed by phosphorus runoff from the Maumee River watershed, more than 72% of which is row-crop agriculture; that is what produced the 2014 do-not-drink advisory that shut off Sylvania's tap water. Toledo's source water…
Sewers
Sanitary
Sylvania's Sewer Division collects wastewater from homes and businesses and conveys it to a treatment facility; the city operates no wastewater treatment plant of its own, and its own materials do not name the receiving plant. Toledo's Bay View Water Reclamation Plant treats wastewater for Toledo and some surrounding suburbs before…
Storm
Not documented in any accessible source. No stormwater utility fee, drainage program, or specific flooding issue was found; the city's website is JavaScript-gated and could not be read directly.
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
- 43560 · Sylvania57% of residents
Also present in 1 more ZIP code
- 43623 · Toledo1% 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
Sylvania City buys its water from Toledo City Of.
No other system is on record buying water from Sylvania City.
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
Sylvania City's own pages: dam.assets.ohio.gov
Notable facts: cityofsylvania.com, toledo.oh.gov, circleofblue.org, toledoblade.com
History: cityofsylvania.com, wtol.com, circleofblue.org, toledo.oh.gov
Water quality: cityofsylvania.com
Rates: co.lucas.oh.us
Sewers: cityofsylvania.com, co.lucas.oh.us, toledo.oh.gov
Treatment: cityofsylvania.com, toledo.oh.gov
Supply stress: cityofsylvania.com, circleofblue.org