Water system
Germantown City
EPA ID OH5701012 · Montgomery County · 5,547 people served · owned by a local government
Germantown City treats its own water from Groundwater wells (4 wells).
The system's record
- Active wells
- 4
- Serves
- 5,547 people · Montgomery County
- EPA ID
- OH5701012
About this area's water
Did you know
- Germantown's four wells sit in Kercher Park, and the water table they tap stands only 8.5 to 11 feet below the ground surface — shallow enough that Ohio EPA lists the shallowness itself as a reason the supply is rated…
- In Ohio's 2023 statewide PFAS testing, none of the six PFAS compounds sampled were detected in Germantown's finished drinking water.
- The city's newest water tower was deliberately built smaller than the one it replaced — 500,000 gallons instead of 750,000 — because a taller column of water would have pushed pressure too high for downtown and the…
- The downtown alley layout, the Gunckel Town Plan laid out by founder Philip Gunckel in 1814, has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.
- The Mudlick Distillery, established in Germantown in 1847, turned out 30 barrels of whiskey a day and was considered the largest in the country for many years.
History6
- 1804Settled by German-speaking families from Berks County, Pennsylvania.
- 1814Philip Gunckel laid out the original town plan, including the distinctive wagon-wheel alley layout of the downtown.
- 1833Germantown incorporated; it operates as a city today.
- 1976The Gunckel Town Plan Historic District, with much of its 19th and early 20th century building stock intact, placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- 1981Weaver Road water storage standpipe built — an upper tank of 270,000 gallons over a lower tank of 675,000 gallons, 945,000 gallons in all.
- 1997City developed a source water protection plan mapping Germantown's source water protection area.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Four production wells in Kercher Park, on the south side of the city, draw from sand-and-gravel units of the Great Miami (Buried Miami) Valley Aquifer System underlying Twin Creek. Depth to ground water in these wells is only 8.5 to 11 feet — that is the depth of the water table, not the depth of…
Source: germantown.oh.usgermantown.oh.us
Water pressure
No psi figures are published, but Ohio EPA's 2020 Limited Environmental Review describes the distribution system as two pressure zones: an upper zone serving much of the city, now…
Source: germantown.oh.us
What it costs
Germantown publishes no water or sewer rate schedule. The Utilities & Streets page carries only bill-pay links, utility application and termination forms, backflow test forms and…
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate Single sample, no range reported. About a third of the limit; the source is flagged as susceptible to nitrate because… | 3.29 ppm | 10 | 2025 |
| Fluoride Range 0.38-1.33 ppm; naturally occurring plus water additive. | 1.14 ppm | 4 | 2025 |
| Barium Range 0.097-0.097 ppm. Naturally occurring, well below the limit. | 0.097 ppm | 2 | 2024 |
| Total Chlorine Range 0.50-0.80 ppm; disinfectant residual. | 0.63 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range 1.8-9.1 ppb — about a ninth of the limit, typical of a groundwater source. | 9.1 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| Lead Zero of 20 samples exceeded the action level. | 0.80 (90th… ppb | 15 (Action… | 2025 |
| Copper Zero of 20 samples exceeded the action level. | 0.132 (90th… ppm | 1.3 (Action… | 2025 |
| Chloroform Range 0.4-3.4 ppb; chlorination byproduct, no federal standard. | 3.4 ppb | unregulated | 2025 |
| Bromodichloromethane Range 0.8-2.8 ppb; chlorination byproduct. | 2.8 ppb | unregulated | 2025 |
| Dibromochloromethane Range 1.0-2.3 ppb; chlorination byproduct. | 2.3 ppb | unregulated | 2025 |
Source: germantown.oh.us
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0.8 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 & plans2
Recent and current work
- Water Tower and Telemetry (SCADA) Replacement · $2.3 million · 2020
Financed by an Ohio EPA Water Supply Revolving Loan Account loan (FS390387) at the 1% hardship interest rate over 30 years, saving the city roughly $672,000… - Water Service Line Material Inventory · 2024 · completed
Published under the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions and linked from both the 2025 water quality report and the Utilities & Streets page, alongside a public…
Supply stress
Ohio EPA's 2003 susceptibility analysis rates Germantown's source as highly susceptible to contamination for four stated reasons: the shallowness of the water table (ground water stands only 8.5 to 11 feet down in the production wells), the lack of any low-permeability layer overlying the sand and gravel, numerous potential contaminant…
Source: germantown.oh.usgermantown.oh.us
Sewers
Sanitary
The city's Water & Sanitary Sewer division, under the Director of Public Service, bills water and sewer together on a single utility bill that also carries trash and a separate 'sewer & water debt' charge. No wastewater treatment plant name, design capacity, receiving stream, or CSO/consent-decree status is published on the city's…
Storm
A separate Street & Storm Sewer division is listed among the city's departments. No stormwater utility fee, drainage plan, or documented flooding problem was found.
Source: germantown.oh.usgermantown.oh.us
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
- 45327 · Germantown59% 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
Germantown 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 Germantown City.
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
Notable facts: germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us, en.wikipedia.org
History: en.wikipedia.org, germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us
Water quality: germantown.oh.us
Water pressure: germantown.oh.us
Capital projects: germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us
Rates: germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us
Sewers: germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us
Treatment: germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us
Supply stress: germantown.oh.us, germantown.oh.us