Water system
Ross County Water Co. Inc
EPA ID OH7101412 · Ross County · 35,345 people served
Ross County Water Co. Inc treats its own water from Teays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater).
The system's record
- Aquifer
- Teays Valley Aquifer
- Active wells
- 8
- Serves
- 35,345 people · Ross County
- EPA ID
- OH7101412
About this area's water
Did you know
- The company draws from the Teays River Aquifer, which its CCR calls one of the three major underground aquifers in the state of Ohio - the buried channel of a pre-glacial river.
- A single eight-well field feeds two treatment plants, North and South, each rated at 3.5 million gallons per day.
- It is a nonprofit, member-owned utility run by five trustees and 42 employees, serving about 15,000 customers across Ross, Pike, Pickaway, Vinton, Hocking and Jackson counties.
- Finished water leaves the plants at 120-140 mg/L hardness (7-8 grains per gallon) with unusually high alkalinity of 240-280 mg/L.
History4
- 1980IRS grants Ross County Water Company tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(12) member-owned mutual utility, effective September 1980.
- 2024Company reports no MCL or action-level violations across bacteriological, radioactive, disinfection-byproduct, lead/copper and PFAS monitoring.
- 2024Participates in EPA's fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule round; of 29 PFAS compounds plus lithium, only PFPeA is detected, at the South plant.
- 2024A system-wide water rate increase takes effect with July 2024 billing.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Eight wells in the buried Teays Valley aquifer feed two 3.5 MGD plants (North and South). The CCR does not publish the treatment train; finished water is chlorinated (1.21 ppm) and fluoridated (0.90 ppm), leaving at 120-140 mg/L hardness and 240-280 mg/L alkalinity.
Water pressure
not published - no system-wide psi figure appears in the 2024 CCR or on the company's website; water is delivered from two plants across a rural six-county network.
What it costs
$9.68 per 1,000 gallons
Effective with July 2024 billing, 5/8" meter: $26.54 minimum for the first 1,500 gal, then $9.68/1,000 gal for the next 8,500, $7.82 for the next 40,000, $5.04 above 50,000.…
Water quality & impurities9
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM (Total Trihalomethanes) Range 16.6-22.3 ppb, no violation. | 22.3 ppb | 80 ppb | 2024 |
| HAA5 (Haloacetic Acids) Range 7.1-8.1 ppb, no violation. | 8.1 ppb | 60 ppb | 2024 |
| Nitrate Range 0.40-0.96 ppm; typical source is fertilizer runoff. | 0.75 ppm | 10 ppm | 2024 |
| Fluoride Range 0.76-1.10 ppm; added to promote strong teeth. | 0.90 ppm | 4 ppm | 2024 |
| Total Chlorine Range 0.58-1.79 ppm, no violation. | 1.21 ppm | 4 ppm (MRDL) | 2024 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples over the action level; no lead service lines identified. | 1.5 ppb | 15 ppb action… | 2024 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples over the action level. | 0.94 ppm | 1.3 ppm action… | 2024 |
| PFPeA (perfluoropentanoic acid) South plant entry point; only PFAS detected of 29 tested under UCMR5. No federal MCL. | 0.0031 ppb (ug/L) | 0.0030 ppb… | 2024 |
| Radium-228 No violation; erosion of natural deposits. | 2.72 pCi/L | 5 pCi/L… | 2022 |
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 1.8 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
Projects & plans2
Recent and current work
- Lead service line inventory · 2024 · completed
Found no lead, galvanized-requiring-replacement, or unknown-material service lines, using historic records and visual inspections.
Planned or needed
- Phase X service territory extension · planned
Mains to be extended to portions of Upper Twin, Fordyce, Pricer Ridge, Benner Hill, Mt Olive, Turkey Ridge and Wisecup Hill roads. No published cost or date.
Supply stress
Ohio EPA's source water susceptibility analysis rates the aquifer at this well field HIGH susceptibility to contamination, because of the aquifer's sensitivity and several potential contaminant sources inside the protection zone - though no contamination has been detected. Growth pressure comes from continued rural expansion needing new…
Sewers
Sanitary
Ross County Water Company supplies drinking water only and operates no sewers. Its service area is rural and largely unincorporated; we found no public sanitary sewer system serving Bourneville, South Salem, Richmond Dale, Londonderry, Kingston or Frankfort.
Storm
We found no public storm sewer system or stormwater utility for these rural areas.
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.
Main supplier in 6 ZIP codes
Serves
Main water supplier in 8 ZIP codes
- 45617 · Twin Township and Bourneville100% of residents
- 45647 · Liberty Township and Londonderry92% of residents
- 45628 · Concord Township and Frankfort80% of residents
- 45681 · Buckskin Township and South Salem68% of residents
- 45673 · Jefferson Township and Richmond Dale65% of residents
- 45644 · Kingston41% of residents
- 45672 · Jackson Township and Ray21% of residents
- 43152 · Benton Township and South Bloomingville6% of residents
Also present in 9 more ZIP codes
- 45601 · Chillicothe44% of residents
- 43115 · Deerfield Township and Clarksburg23% of residents
- 45612 · Paxton Township and Bainbridge12% of residents
- 43135 · Perry Township and Laurelville12% of residents
- 45123 · Greenfield11% of residents
- 45690 · Waverly8% of residents
- 43160 · Washington Court House1% of residents
- 43113 · Circleville0% of residents
- 45651 · Mcarthur and Mc Arthur0% 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
Ross County Water Co. Inc does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
3 systems on record buy water from Ross County Water Co. Inc: Kingston Village, Pike Water, Inc.-ross 2, Pike Water, Inc.-ross 3.
What the records show about Ross County Water Co. Inc
Who runs it
EPA's record says Ross County Water Co. Inc has 17,018 service connections and serves 35,345 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 740-773-3435.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Ross County Water Co. Inc: aeration, corrosion control, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, fluoridation, ion-exchange softening, 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 Ross County Water Co. Inc since 2015.
EPA logs no violations of any kind for Ross County Water Co. Inc since 2020.
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 September 2026).
Lead and copper at the tap
In the sampling period ending December 2025, the 90th-percentile lead result at Ross County Water Co. Inc was 1.8 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027.
The highest result on file is 2 ppb, in the period ending December 2022.
EPA has 9 sampling periods on file for Ross County Water Co. Inc since 2016, the first ending in 2016; 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 Ross County Water Co. Inc sent EPA, 17,601 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 0 |
| Unknown material | 0 |
| Not lead | 17,601 |
| All lines | 17,601 |
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 5 samples of the water entering the pipes of Ross County Water Co. Inc in 2024 to 2025 and measured 29 PFAS.
PFOA and PFOS were not 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 2 plants of Ross County Water Co. Inc (latest sample September 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 2 plants of Ross County Water Co. Inc as sampled, most recently August 2026.
| 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 Ross County Water Co. Inc's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 23.6 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 30 µg/L and the highest single sample was 37.2 µg/L, from 38 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 12.9 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 12.9 µg/L and the highest single sample was 16.8 µg/L, from 38 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 23.6 µg/L (2019) | 30 µg/L | 37.2 µg/L | 38 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 12.9 µg/L | 12.9 µg/L | 16.8 µg/L | 38 |
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 16 samples was 2.1 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2014; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 0.7 mg/L. No sample was over the limit of 10 mg/L. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants.
Arsenic was not detected in 6 samples (limit 10 µg/L).
| Contaminant | Samples | Highest result | Limit | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 16 | 2.1 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 6 | not detected | 10 µg/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 6 samples each.
| Compound | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benzene | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| 1,2-dichloroethane | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Trichloroethylene (TCE) | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Vinyl chloride | 2 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | 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: barium in 6 of 6 samples, highest 47.5 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: atrazine, alachlor, chromium, cadmium, mercury, selenium, and thallium, in 6 samples each.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Chromium | Metal | 100 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Cadmium | Metal | 5 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Barium | Metal | 2,000 µg/L | 6 | 6 of 6 | 47.5 µg/L | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Selenium | Metal | 50 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | not detected | 0 |
| Thallium | Metal | 2 µg/L | 6 | 0 of 6 | 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, 5 of 3,841 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Ross County Water Co. Inc tested positive (0.13%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 480 did. E. coli was never found in the 5 samples tested for it.
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 Ross County Water Co. Inc adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Ross County Water Co. Inc.
Measured fluoride: 0.94 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.8 to 1.08 mg/L across 6 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 Ross County Water Co. Inc, 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.
How well the service area is mapped
The service area drawn on the map for Ross County Water Co. Inc comes from the utility's own map.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 39,003 residents are inside the boundary, 110% of the 35,345 people Ross County Water Co. Inc 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 — 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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH7101412 (EPA ECHO).
Ross County Water Co. Inc's own pages: rosscowater.org, web.ohioruralwater.org
