Water system
Ottawa Village
EPA ID OH6900711 · Putnam County · 4,393 people served · owned by a local government
Ottawa Village treats its own water from Blanchard River (via intake reservoir).
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Blanchard River
- Raw intakes
- Reservoir
Blanchard River - Serves
- 4,393 people · Putnam County
- EPA ID
- OH6900711
Confirms SDWIS: village draws river water into an on-site holding/intake reservoir before treatment; Blanchard River is also the source Ottawa itself supplies onward to Glandorf, Bluffton, and Miller City.
About this area's water
Did you know
- The Blanchard River is named for Jean Jacques Blanchard, described by the village as a French tailor who settled among the Shawnee along the river in 1769. (Earlier drafts of this entry called him a trader; the…
- Ottawa drinks from the Blanchard River and returns its treated wastewater to the same river: the water plant on Agner Street draws from the Blanchard, and the wastewater plant on Defiance Street discharges back into it.
- The water plant is designed for 3 million gallons a day, currently makes about 1.75 MGD, and is backed by a 116-million-gallon reservoir.
- Ohio EPA's source water assessment counted 162 miles of roads and 75 miles of rail lines — 1,066 road intersections and 48 rail crossings — upstream of the intake, any of which could put a hazardous-material spill into…
- The village sampled for more than 80 different contaminants in 2025, most of which were not detected; the CCR explains that a part per billion is about one second in 31.7 years.
History6
- 1861Village of Ottawa incorporated, in the first year of the Civil War; European-American settlement of the area began around 1835.
- 1999Wastewater treatment plant expanded in a $4.5 million project — two 75-foot final settling tanks, two UV disinfection channels, a sludge pumping and generator building, and an oxidation ditch —…
- 2003Ohio EPA completed a drinking water source assessment for Ottawa's Blanchard River intake in November 2003.
- 2023Source water protection area established for the system on April 12, 2023 (SDWIS).
- 2025Ohio EPA issued a Warning Letter on October 21, 2025 for failing to demonstrate that annual lead service line notifications required by July 1, 2025 had been delivered; the village supplied the…
- 2025Ohio EPA issued a Notice of Violation on November 13, 2025 requiring four corrections to the 2024 CCR: copper 90th percentile corrected to 0.075 ppm, the 2022 Gross Alpha detection added, atrazine…
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Surface water is drawn from the Blanchard River and its tributaries, south of the plant, into the village's reservoir and treated at the Ottawa Water Treatment Plant, 1972 Agner Street. Treatment is conventional surface-water treatment with filtration and chlorine disinfection; the plant is…
Source: ottawaohio.usottawaohio.usottawaohio.us
Water pressure
Not published. The 2025 CCR, the Water Department page and the Sewer Department page all give no distribution pressure figure or pressure-zone map.
Source: ottawaohio.usottawaohio.us
What it costs
$13.45 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $74 a month for water.
Water: $10.06 per 100 cubic feet 'or portion thereof' effective January 1, 2024 (up from $8.75 effective January 1, 2023) — the most recent water rate the Water Department page…
Source: ottawaohio.usottawaohio.us
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) MCL VIOLATION — highest locational running annual average, Q4 2025; individual results ranged 37.9-129.4 ppb.… | 83.4 ppb | 80 ppb (MCL) | 2025 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) Range 20.7-51.0; disinfection by-product, just over half the MCL. | 31.8 ppb | 60 ppb (MCL) | 2025 |
| Chloroform (unregulated) Range 22.5-87.0; the dominant component of Ottawa's trihalomethanes. | 87 ppb | no individual… | 2025 |
| Bromodichloromethane (unregulated) Range 9.2-28.1. Dibromochloromethane 13.7 ppb and bromoform 1.6 ppb were also reported. | 28.1 ppb | no individual… | 2025 |
| Nitrate Range 0.53-3.0; fertilizer runoff, septic tanks, erosion of natural deposits in an agricultural watershed. | 3.0 ppm | 10 ppm (MCL) | 2025 |
| Fluoride Range 0.83-1.30. | 1.12 ppm | 4 ppm (MCL) | 2025 |
| Barium Under 1% of the MCL. | 0.016 ppm | 2 ppm (MCL) | 2025 |
| Total Chlorine Range 1.4-2.1; the village is lowering residuals where it can as part of its TTHM correction. | 1.858 ppm | 4 ppm (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) Corrected value per the November 13, 2025 Ohio EPA NOV; 0 of 25 samples above the action level. | 0.075 ppm | 1.3 ppm (Action… | 2023 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 25 samples above the action level. | <2.0 ppb | 15 ppb (Action… | 2023 |
Source: ottawaohio.us
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2023 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2026Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.086 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · known
24 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 23 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
Projects & plans6
Recent and current work
- Wastewater treatment plant expansion · $4.5 million · 1999 · completed
Two 75-foot-diameter final settling tanks, two UV disinfection channels totalling 5.0 MGD, a sludge pumping and generator building, and an oxidation ditch for… - Green Meadow Drive sewer lining · $96,045 · 2026 · planned
Resolution 8631, passed May 11, 2026, accepting American Trenchless's bid not to exceed $96,045. Council reviewed lining on Northview Court at the same meeting… - Lead service line inventory (with Arcadis engineering) · 2026 · under construction
Village is working with Arcadis to build and maintain a complete service line inventory after the October 2025 warning letter; required notifications and the… - TTHM corrective measures at the water plant · 2026 · under construction
Adjusting treatment to optimize disinfection and reduce by-product formation, optimizing chlorine feed rates and lowering residuals where appropriate, and…
Source: ottawaohio.usottawaohio.usottawaohio.us
Planned or needed
- Wastewater treatment plant facility planning document (Jones & Henry Engineers, Ltd.) · 2026 · proposed
Ordinance authorizing acceptance of the Jones & Henry proposal without competitive bidding was on second reading at the May 11, 2026 council meeting. The… - Miller City water tank repair · 2026 · planned
Cited by the public works director on May 11, 2026 as work that 'will also help' the TTHM situation, indicating the tank is part of Ottawa's distribution…
Source: ottawaohio.us
Supply stress
The intake is on the Blanchard River, and Ohio EPA's November 2003 source water assessment treats all Ohio surface waters as susceptible and requiring extensive treatment; Ottawa's protection area contains agricultural and feed-lot runoff, home construction, unsewered areas, combined sewer overflows, wastewater treatment discharges…
Sewers
Sanitary
Ottawa Wastewater Treatment Plant, 1371 Defiance Street, serving the villages of Ottawa and Glandorf plus portions of Ottawa Township and discharging to the Blanchard River, a Maumee River tributary. Treatment is contact stabilization with an oxidation ditch run in extended-aeration mode, plus UV disinfection. Rated 3.0 MGD since the…
Storm
Not published. No storm sewer or stormwater program information appears on the village site.
Source: ottawaohio.usottawaohio.us
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.
Present in 1 ZIP code
Serves
Main water supplier in 1 ZIP code
- 45875 · Ottawa39% 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
Ottawa Village does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
2 systems on record buy water from Ottawa Village: Bluffton Village, Glandorf Village.
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
Ottawa Village's own pages: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us
Notable facts: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us
History: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us, data.epa.gov
Water quality: ottawaohio.us
Planned work: ottawaohio.us
Water pressure: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us
Capital projects: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us
Rates: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us
Sewers: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us
Treatment: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us, data.epa.gov
Supply stress: ottawaohio.us, ottawaohio.us, data.epa.gov