Zanesville

• The city's well field is one half of a Superfund site: up to 121 drums of TCE were dropped down a 40-foot brick-lined well on the factory property across the river in the early 1970s, and U.S. EPA stumbled on the…
• That factory property has been in industrial use since 1893, when the American Encaustic Tiling Company built there.
• Zanesville's 2011 plant pushes its water through eight 12-foot GreensandPlus filters to strip out iron and manganese; the $16 million plant was paid for with federal stimulus money.
• The interconnections with the Muskingum County Water Department are strictly emergency backups — the city's 2023 report says they weren't used at all that year.
• Zanesville bills water by the cubic foot, not the gallon: $6.50 per 100 cubic feet works out to $8.69 per 1,000 gallons.

Source: semspub.epa.govcumulis.epa.govwateronline.com

• 1893The neighboring west-bank property begins its life as a factory when the American Encaustic Tiling Company builds there; it later passes to Essex and then United Technologies, and manufacturing…
• 1970sUp to 121 drums of trichloroethylene solvent are placed inside a 40-foot brick-lined dug well on the plant property across the Muskingum River from the city well field.
• 1981U.S. EPA finds TCE contamination at the City of Zanesville's water supply well field during a random spot check for volatile organic compounds.
• 1983An interim groundwater extraction and treatment system is installed in July and about 120 drums are removed; the Zanesville Well Field site is added to the National Priorities List in September.
• 1987A 7.5 MGD water treatment plant is placed in service.
• 1991The Record of Decision selecting the Superfund remedy — groundwater capture and treatment plus soil treatment — is signed in September.

Source: coz.orgsemspub.epa.govcumulis.epa.gov

How it is treated

Twelve wells in the Muskingum River Buried Valley Aquifer along Lewis Drive (S.R. 666) at Riverside Park feed the City of Zanesville Water Division plant at 14 Buckeye Drive. The $16 million, 10 MGD plant that came online at the end of 2011 replaced a 7.5 MGD plant dating to 1987; it uses eight…

Source: coz.orgcoz.orgwateronline.com

Water pressure

Not published. The city reports six storage tanks totaling 8.5 million gallons and 194 miles of main but no pressure zones or psi figures.

Source: coz.org

$8.69 per 1,000 gallons

Typical household bill about $34 a month for water.

City rate sheet: residential inside the city pays a $12.50 monthly minimum covering the first 200 cubic feet, then $6.50 per 100 cubic feet for the next 4,600 cf and $6.00 per 100…

Source: coz.org

Source: coz.org

EPA compliance record

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0.9 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

Recent and current work

• New 10 MGD water treatment plant, 14 Buckeye Drive · $16 million · 2011 · completed
  Eight Hungerford & Terry GreensandPlus filters plus two 500,000-gallon raw water tanks and two on-site laboratories; federally stimulus-funded; replaced a 7.5…
• Water line replacements on Military Road, Cliffwood, Maple and Woodlawn avenues · 2023 · completed
  Reported in the city's 2023 CCR along with numerous hydrant and service line installations and repairs; no cost published.
• Sewer separation at CSO racks R6 and R8-R11 with Y-Bridge pump station force main improvements · $5.8 million · 2024 · completed
  The $5.8 million figure is the city's nomination for 0% CSO discount loans through Ohio's Water Pollution Control Loan Fund, not a verified final construction…
• Linden Avenue lift station rehabilitation · 2024 · completed
  Pumps replaced to maintain existing design capacity; counted among the LTCP Update's Early Action projects, which total $10,994,000 in 2021 dollars.

Source: coz.orgwateronline.comdam.assets.ohio.gov

Planned or needed

• Water line improvements on Dresden Road, W. Country Club and Center Drive · 2024 · planned
  Listed as scheduled in the city's 2023 CCR; no cost published and no completion notice found.
• CSO Long-Term Control Plan Update selected alternative · $40 million · 2025 · planned
  AECOM plan for the city dated March 2025 and posted by Ohio EPA: $40.04 million in 2021 dollars over a three-phase, 20-year schedule, cutting typical-year…
• Wastewater treatment plant upgrades under the LTCP Update · $15 million · planned
  Restore peak primary treatment capacity to 36 MGD and peak secondary to 27 MGD by removing hydraulic bottlenecks; current wet weather capacity is 25 MGD.
• In-line and off-line CSO storage at racks R3 and R21 · $12 million · planned
  Oversized gravity sewer for in-line storage at R3; a storage array plus a 1 MGD pump station at R21.
• Zanesville Well Field Superfund: PFAS sampling and updated environmental covenants · 2026 · needed
  Identified as needed actions in the sixth five-year review completed May 11, 2026; long-term groundwater monitoring and operation of the remedy continue.

Source: coz.orgdam.assets.ohio.govcumulis.epa.gov

Ohio EPA's source water assessment rates Zanesville's supply as highly susceptible to contamination: there is no protective clay layer over the aquifer, the aquifer is less than 20 feet below ground surface, man-made contaminants are already present in it, and significant potential contaminant sources sit in the protection area. The well…

Source: coz.orgcumulis.epa.govcoz.org

Sanitary

The city runs its own wastewater plant on Moxahala Avenue, discharging to the Muskingum River, with an average daily design flow around 11 MGD and a current wet weather capacity of 25 MGD. Much of the older city is served by a combined system; about a dozen CSO outfalls (the city calls them 'racks') remain active, discharging an…

Storm

Zanesville runs a stormwater utility. The 2024 residential fee is $5.13 a month, equal to one Equivalent Residential Unit; commercial accounts are charged one ERU for every 2,300 square feet of impervious surface, measured on the utility's interactive map.

Source: dam.assets.ohio.govcoz.org

Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.