Water system
Youngstown City
EPA ID OH5002303 · Mahoning County · 130,530 people served · owned by a local government
Youngstown City buys its water from Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Meander Creek Reservoir, Berlin Reservoir
- Raw intakes
- Meander Creek Reservoir
Berlin Reservoir - EPA ID
- OH7801811
Mahoning Valley Sanitary District operates two impounding reservoirs on tributaries of the Mahoning River (Meander Creek and the Mahoning River at Berlin) and supplies treated water wholesale to Youngstown-area systems; no wells.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Meander Creek Reservoir is seven miles long with 40 miles of shoreline across 2,010 acres, holding 10 billion gallons at spillway crest plus a billion more behind an inflatable rubber bladder dam.
- MVSD serves about 220,000 people across Youngstown, Niles, McDonald, Girard, Canfield, Mineral Ridge, Lordstown, Craig Beach and parts of ten townships — more than Youngstown's own population.
- The valley drank the most water during the steel era: MVSD's record was 40.48 MGD in 1978-79, and it now treats about 27.3 MGD from the same 1932 reservoir.
- Youngstown's 2025 lead sampling produced a 90th-percentile result of ND, yet one of 104 taps came back at 180 ppb — twelve times the 15 ppb action level.
History4
- 1926The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District was formed under Ohio's sanitary district law by its member cities, Youngstown and Niles, to build a shared reservoir supply.
- 1932MVSD began delivering water to Youngstown and Niles on July 9, 1932 from the new Meander Creek Reservoir; McDonald is served as an agent of the members.
- 1978-1979MVSD's highest recorded output, averaging 40.48 million gallons a day, still well under the plant's 60 MGD design capacity.
- 2019-2022MVSD ran repeated fracking-waste and PFAS lab tests on Meander Creek Reservoir water and posted the results publicly amid shale drilling in the watershed.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Youngstown treats none of its own water: MVSD draws surface water from Meander Creek Reservoir and treats about 27.3 MGD by chemical softening, disinfection, fluoridation, taste-and-odor control, mixing, settling, filtration and pumping.
Water pressure
not published — no psi figure in the 2025 CCR; Youngstown moves about 17.4 MGD through 750 miles of pipeline, and MVSD's 60 MGD plant runs near 27.3 MGD.
What it costs
Youngstown's chart (eff. Feb 1, 2026) gives city water as (5.17034 x consumption) + $2.81 for 4-33 units, but never defines the unit, so no $/1,000 gal is stated.
Water quality & impurities8
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM (total trihalomethanes) Disinfection byproduct; range 40.30-90.50, individual samples above the MCL. No violation. | 72.63 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| HAA5 (haloacetic acids) Disinfection byproduct; range 13.60-36.70. | 29.00 ppb | 60 | 2025 |
| Lead (90th percentile, Round 2) 1 of 104 sites above the action level; range ND-180.00 ppb. No violation. | ND ppb | 15 (action… | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile, Round 2) 0 of 104 sites above the action level. | 0.07 ppm | 1.3 (action… | 2025 |
| Fluoride Added to promote strong teeth plus natural deposits; range 0.85-1.10. | 1.00 ppm | 4 | 2025 |
| Nitrate Fertilizer and septic runoff; range 0.10-0.56, far below the MCL. | 0.33 ppm | 10 | 2025 |
| Chlorine Disinfectant residual; range 1.87-3.11. | 2.25 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Turbidity Filtration performance measure; treatment-technique standard met. | 0.09 NTU | TT | 2025 |
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2026 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
2 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 2 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
EPA compliance record · Mahoning Valley Sanitary District (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.
Projects & plans5
Recent and current work
- Buckeye Plat water main and lead service line replacement · $8.9 million · 2026 · under construction
Water main and lead services for 720+ homes on the southeast side near Midlothian Blvd and Sheridan Rd; council raised the appropriation to $8.9M. - Crandall Park area lead service line replacement · $5.8 million · 2026 · planned
About 470 lead lines around Gypsy Lane, Fifth Ave, Tod Lane and Belmont Ave; 50% Ohio EPA principal forgiveness on the engineer's estimate. - Drinking Water Assistance Fund lead line replacement · $500,000 · 2026 · planned
229 lead service lines to be replaced with an Ohio EPA Drinking Water Assistance Fund grant. - Vacuum excavation truck purchase · $1.2 million · 2025 · completed
A $1.2M congressional direct spending grant bought the water department's first vac truck in December 2025 for lead service line work.
Planned or needed
- Glenwood Avenue lead service line replacement · $13 million · 2026 · planned
About 800 lead lines from Midlothian Blvd to Almyra Ave on the South Side, funded by an Ohio EPA WSRLA loan carrying 50% principal forgiveness.
Supply stress
Supply is ample — MVSD's 60 MGD plant runs near 27.3 MGD. The pressure is on quality and pipes: 2025 TTHM averaged 72.63 ppb against an 80 ppb MCL with single samples reaching 90.5 ppb, and lead services remain, one 2025 tap reading 180 ppb.
Sewers
Sanitary
Youngstown bills its own city sewer service — (9.09 x consumption) + $41.73 a month as of Feb. 2026 — but the operating entity, treatment plant, capacity, receiving stream and any CSO consent decree could not be verified from published sources in this pass.
Storm
Not confirmed — no public source located showing whether Youngstown's storm sewers are separate or combined, and no stormwater utility fee was found.
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.
Main supplier in 12 ZIP codes
Serves
Main water supplier in 12 ZIP codes
- 44503 · Youngstown100% of residents
- 44504 · Youngstown100% of residents
- 44507 · Youngstown100% of residents
- 44509 · Youngstown100% of residents
- 44510 · Youngstown100% of residents
- 44511 · Youngstown100% of residents
- 44555 · Youngstown100% of residents
- 44515 · Austintown Township and Youngstown99% of residents
- 44506 · Youngstown99% of residents
- 44502 · Youngstown97% of residents
- 44505 · Youngstown88% of residents
- 44512 · Boardman Township and Youngstown76% of residents
Also present in 5 more ZIP codes
- 44406 · Canfield Township and Canfield23% of residents
- 44514 · Poland Township and Youngstown10% of residents
- 44440 · Weathersfield Township and Mineral Ridge9% of residents
- 44437 · Mcdonald and Mc Donald1% of residents
- 44436 · Poland Township and Lowellville1% 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
Youngstown City buys its water from Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.
2 systems on record buy water from Youngstown City: Canfield City, Jackson/milton Metro Water District.
Photograph
On the map
Show this system's territory on the map — 17 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
Youngstown City's own pages: youngstownohio.gov, meanderwater.org, data.epa.gov