Water system
Piqua City
EPA ID OH5501211 · Miami County · 20,354 people served · owned by a local government
Piqua City treats its own water from Great Miami River + Ernst Gravel Pit + Swift Run Lake (hydraulic system).
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Great Miami River, Ernst Gravel Pit, Swift Run Lake (hydraulic system)
- Raw intakes
- Piqua Ernst Gravelpit Reser
Piqua Miami River
Piqua Swift Run Lake - Serves
- 20,354 people · Miami County
- EPA ID
- OH5501211
About this area's water

Did you know
- Piqua's drinking water partly comes from a chain of Ohio canal-era lakes and canals still called the 'hydraulic system' - Swift Run Lake.
- The Ernst gravel pit is really two adjoining lakes: the 4.5-acre one Piqua owns, and a 32-acre neighbor in private residential ownership.
- Piqua sits in an area with a federally designated sole source aquifer and still cannot drink from it - the sand-and-gravel groundwater yield is too limited, so the city takes all of its water from the surface.
- Spring atrazine in the Swift Run Lake reservoir once peaked at 85 parts per billion - about 28 times the drinking water MCL - before treatment; the 2025 finished water measured 0.08 ppb.
History6
- 2003City completed its first Source Water Protection Plan and a Vulnerability Assessment under the 2002 Bioterrorism Preparedness Act.
- 2005-2010
- 2010A single algae sample taken July 27, 2010 confirmed cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in the reservoir source.
- 2011
- 2017-2020City built a roughly $42 million expansion/upgrade of its wastewater treatment plant under an Ohio EPA mandate to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows to the Great Miami River.
- 2025Ohio EPA performed a new assessment of Piqua's source water in June 2025; the city retains a current, unconditioned license to operate.
Source: piquaoh.govpiquaoh.orgwdtn.com
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Conventional lime-softening surface water treatment at the Water Division plant, 9801 N. State Route 66.
What it costs
$10.40 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $58 a month for water.
Source: piquaoh.govvandaliaohio.org
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 27.5 ppb | 80 ppb MCL | 2025 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Range ND-7.4 ppb. | 5.2 ppb | 60 ppb MCL | 2025 |
| Nitrate Range ND-3.29 ppm; runoff from fertilizer and septic leaching. | 3.29 ppm | 10 ppm MCL | 2025 |
| Atrazine Finished-water result; source-water monitoring in 2005-2010 saw seasonal spring peaks up to 85 ppb in the reservoir. | 0.08 ppb | 3 ppb MCL | 2025 |
| Fluoride Range 0.80-1.30 ppm; added for dental health. | 0.93 ppm | 4 ppm MCL | 2025 |
| Chlorine Range 0.20-1.63 ppm. | 0.89 ppm | 4 ppm MRDL | 2025 |
| Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Range 1.70-3.40. | 2025 | ||
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 30 sites above the action level. | 0.042 ppm | 2025 | |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 30 sites above the action level. | ND ppb | 2025 | |
| Turbidity Range 0.02-0.22 NTU; listed among unregulated substances in the CCR table. | 0.220 NTU | 2025 |
Source: piquaoh.orgpiquaoh.gov
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.
6 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 1 for required testing that was missed or reported late; 5 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Projects & plans4
Recent and current work
- Wastewater treatment plant expansion and upgrade · $42 million · 2017-2020 · completed
- Lead and galvanized service line inventory (Lead and Copper Rule Revisions) · 2024-2026 · completed
Source: wdtn.combowser-morner.compiquaoh.org
Planned or needed
- Hydraulic Canal and Dam Safety Project (Swift Run Lake, Echo Lake and Franz Pond dams) · 2022-ongoing · planned
- Dedicated raw-water sample taps for each source at a rebuilt treatment plant · 2011 · proposed
2011 SWAP recommended adding a sample tap for each of the three sources (river, gravel pit, reservoir) whenever the WTP is next redesigned.
Source: piquaoh.govpiquaoh.gov
Supply stress
Piqua relies entirely on surface water. Part of its watershed sits over a federally/Ohio EPA-designated sole source aquifer, but the sand-and-gravel aquifer yields too little for city demand, so all supply comes from the hydraulic system, the Ernst gravel pit (limited to under 30% of needed volume) and the Great Miami River.
Source: piquaoh.govpiquaoh.org
Sewers
Sanitary
City of Piqua Utilities Department operates the wastewater system.
Storm
The city runs a stormwater utility billed by Equivalent Residential Unit: $7.40 per month per ERU (1 ERU = 5,400 square feet of impervious area) for residential customers, and $7.40 times the number of ERUs for commercial and industrial customers.
Source: piquaoh.orgpiquaoh.orgwdtn.com
Serves
Main water supplier in 1 ZIP code
- 45356 · Piqua80% 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
Piqua City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Piqua City.
What the records show about Piqua City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Piqua City as owned by a local government. It has 8,824 service connections and serves 20,354 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
EPA's record says it has substantially implemented source water protection under Ohio's program, dating the program from 2023. Its office telephone on EPA's record is 937-778-2090.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Piqua City: corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, fluoridation, lime softening, powdered activated carbon, and sand or media filtration.
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 Piqua City since 2015.
EPA logs 6 violations of any kind since 2020: 1 for required testing that was missed or reported late; 5 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 November 2026).
Lead and copper at the tap
For the sampling period ending December 2025, EPA's record lists the 90th-percentile lead result at Piqua City as 0 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027. EPA records a result below the lab's reporting level as 0, so this is the result reported, not proof that no home sampled had lead.
The highest result on file is 2 ppb, in the period ending June 2018.
EPA has 9 sampling periods on file for Piqua 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 Piqua City sent EPA, 9,492 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 600 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 69 |
| Unknown material | 7,809 |
| Not lead | 1,014 |
| All lines | 9,492 |
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 4 samples of the water entering the pipes of Piqua City in 2025 and measured 29 PFAS.
EPA's UCMR 5 file shows no PFOA or PFOS detected, against a federal limit of 4 ng/L each.
The highest PFAS result was PFPeA 3.1 ng/L.
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Piqua City (latest sample July 2020). Not one of the six PFAS tested (PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX and PFBS) was detected.
Ohio EPA's current sampling status map lists 1 plant of Piqua City as sampled, most recently November 2025.
| Compound | Highest result | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| PFOA | not detected | 4 ng/L |
| PFOS | not detected | 4 ng/L |
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 Piqua City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 46.1 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 70.4 µg/L and the highest single sample was 146.9 µg/L, from 144 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 13.3 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 25.9 µg/L and the highest single sample was 45.7 µg/L, from 148 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 46.1 µg/L (2019) | 70.4 µg/L | 146.9 µg/L | 144 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 13.3 µg/L | 25.9 µg/L | 45.7 µg/L | 148 |
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
Nitrate: the highest of 96 samples was 7.16 mg/L (as nitrogen), in 2019, the last year sampled. 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 | 7.16 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 8 | not detected | 10 µg/L | 0 |
| Combined radium | 1 | 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.
Solvents and fuels
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.
Farm chemicals and metals
EPA's file holds results for 8 of the nine herbicides and metals it checked. Detected: atrazine in 19 of 48 samples, highest 2.52 µg/L (limit 3); barium in 8 of 8 samples, highest 200 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: alachlor in 48 samples, chromium in 8 samples, cadmium in 8 samples, mercury in 8 samples, selenium in 8 samples, thallium in 8 samples.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 48 | 19 of 48 | 2.52 µg/L | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 48 | 0 of 48 | 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 | 200 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 | 8 | 0 of 8 | 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.
Bacteria in the pipes
From 2012 to 2019, 0 of 1,924 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Piqua City tested positive (0%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 240 did.
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 Piqua City adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Piqua City.
Measured fluoride: 0.92 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (above the 0.7 mg/L level now recommended and well under the 4 mg/L limit); samples ran from 0.86 to 1.08 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 4 UCMR 5 samples at Piqua 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
Ohio EPA tests for microcystin, a toxin that harmful algal blooms can release, in raw water at the intake and in treated water.
No microcystin was detected in the 50 raw-water samples.
Microcystin was never detected in treated water (284 samples).
In all, 334 samples from 2016 to 2026, the latest on August 25, 2026.
| Water | Samples | Detections | Highest result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw water, at the intake | 50 | 0 | not detected |
| Treated water | 284 | 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).
Water and sewer bills
Ohio EPA's 2023 rate survey puts the water bill at Piqua City for a household using 5,000 gallons a month at $838 a year, about $70 a month.
| Use | Water, per year | Sewer, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 gallons a month | $526 | not on file |
| 5,000 gallons a month | $838 | not on file |
| 8,000 gallons a month | $1,212 | not on file |
The survey lists it as “Piqua”. These are inside-city rates and annual bills at the use shown.
Source: Ohio EPA 2023 Sewer and Water Rate Survey (Ohio State University, May 2025).
How well the service area is mapped
EPA estimated the service area of Piqua 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 20,150 residents are inside the boundary, 99% of the 20,354 people Piqua 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 — 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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH5501211 (EPA ECHO).
Piqua City's own pages: growpiquanow.org, piquaoh.gov
Notable facts: piquaoh.gov, piquaoh.gov, piquaoh.gov, piquaoh.org
History: piquaoh.gov, piquaoh.org, wdtn.com, bowser-morner.com
Water quality: piquaoh.org, piquaoh.gov
Planned work: piquaoh.gov, piquaoh.gov
Water pressure: piquaoh.gov
Capital projects: wdtn.com, bowser-morner.com, piquaoh.org
Rates: piquaoh.gov, vandaliaohio.org
Sewers: piquaoh.org, piquaoh.org, wdtn.com, bowser-morner.com
Treatment: piquaoh.gov, piquaoh.org, piquaoh.org
Supply stress: piquaoh.gov, piquaoh.org