Water system
Portsmouth City
EPA ID OH7300111 · Scioto County · 40,475 people served · owned by a local government
Portsmouth City treats its own water from Ohio River.
The system's record
- Water bodies
- Ohio River
- Raw intakes
- Ohio River
- Serves
- 40,475 people · Scioto County
- EPA ID
- OH7300111
About this area's water
Did you know
- Portsmouth supplies about half of all public water used in Scioto County and reaches as far as South Shore, Kentucky, making it the county's largest water utility.
- The plant sits inside the 100-year floodplain behind an Ohio River levee, so every new structure is being built above elevation 537 feet in case the levee ever fails.
- Ohio EPA is forgiving up to $10 million of the loan principal for the portion of the work that treats harmful algal bloom toxins, and charges 0% on any HAB balance beyond that.
- Demand has fallen so far since the 1940s that piping and equipment sit abandoned in place, and the replacement plant is being built smaller than the one it replaces.
History5
- 1872The city's Holly waterworks begins service on February 22, pumping Ohio River water with steam-driven Holly gang and rotary pumps.
- 1890-1914After the council weighs selling the system in 1889, new pumps are added from 1890 and a new plant opens in 1914.
- 1937The Ohio River flood overwhelms Portsmouth's river defenses and inundates much of the city.
- 2013EPA proposes a federal Clean Water Act Administrative Order on Consent over raw-sewage overflows from the Portsmouth and Sciotoville sewer systems.
- 2024Ohio EPA issues a finding of no significant impact for an $80 million WSRLA-financed replacement water treatment plant and river intake.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Conventional Ohio River surface-water plant: river intake and pump house, pre-sedimentation basin, ion exchange, rapid mix, flocculation and clarification, high-rate sand filtration, clearwell storage and high-service pumping. Rated 12 MGD; averages 5.2 MGD.
Water pressure
not published; no system-wide psi figure found in city or Ohio EPA materials
What it costs
Typical household bill about $31 a month for water.
No per-1,000-gallon rate published; Ohio EPA's 2024 loan review cites a $371 average annual bill, with rises of 10% in 2024, 5% in 2025-26 and 3% after.
Water quality & impurities
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 1.4 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
4 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 4 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Projects & plans2
Recent and current work
- Portsmouth replacement water treatment plant (WSRLA) · $80 million · 2024 · under construction
New 8.3 MGD plant (expandable to 12 MGD) and new river intake replacing facilities past their useful life; a $3.5M earmark also used.
Planned or needed
- New raw water intake and river water pump house · 2024 · under construction
New intake built about 35 meters offshore in the Ohio River as part of the same WSRLA project.
Supply stress
Ohio River supply is not quantity-limited and demand has fallen for decades (5.2 MGD average against a 12 MGD rated plant). The stress is asset condition: a plant built before 1930 whose processes have passed their useful lives, plus the need to treat harmful algal bloom toxins.
Sewers
Sanitary
City of Portsmouth runs the sanitary and combined sewers for Portsmouth and Sciotoville. A federal Clean Water Act Administrative Order on Consent requires it to cut raw-sewage overflows, improve operation and maintenance, and build work in the Munn's Run and Upper Grandview/Lawson Run areas.
Storm
The system includes both combined and separate sewer areas; stormwater inflow reduction such as downspout disconnection is required by the consent order. No dedicated stormwater utility fee found.
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.
Main supplier in 3 ZIP codes
Serves
Main water supplier in 5 ZIP codes
- 45662 · Portsmouth76% of residents
- 45630 · Nile Township and Friendship59% of residents
- 45663 · Washington Township and West Portsmouth41% of residents
- 45629 · Green Township and Franklin Furnace23% of residents
- 45694 · Porter Township and Wheelersburg22% of residents
Also present in 2 more ZIP codes
- 45684 · Nile Township and Stout0% of residents
- 45648 · Valley Township and Lucasville0% 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
Portsmouth City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
11 systems on record buy water from Portsmouth City: Scioto Water Inc - Stony Run, Scioto Water Inc. - Gliem Rd, Scioto Water Inc. - Pond Run, Scioto Water Inc. - Zeigler Lane, Scioto Water Inc.- Sheila Blvd, Scioto Water Inc.-careys Run, Scioto Water Inc.-hygean Run, Scioto Water Inc.-nace's Run, Scioto Water Inc.-oakwood, Scioto Water Inc.-slab Run, Scioto Water Inc.-sr125.
What the records show about Portsmouth City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Portsmouth City as owned by a local government. It has 13,442 service connections and serves 40,475 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 740-354-8807.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Portsmouth City: corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, fluoridation, ion-exchange 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 Portsmouth City since 2015.
EPA logs 4 violations of any kind since 2020: 4 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 September 2026).
Lead and copper at the tap
In the sampling period ending December 2025, the 90th-percentile lead result at Portsmouth City was 1.4 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027.
The highest result on file is 2.5 ppb, in the period ending December 2023.
EPA has 7 sampling periods on file for Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth City sent EPA, 14,243 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 0 |
| Unknown material | 9,942 |
| Not lead | 4,301 |
| All lines | 14,243 |
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 Portsmouth City in 2023 and measured 29 PFAS.
The highest PFOA or PFOS result, 5.4 ng/L, is at or above the federal limit of 4 ng/L that EPA set in 2024. Systems have until 2029 to comply, and in May 2026 EPA proposed letting systems apply for two more years. One sample over the limit is not a violation: compliance is judged on a running annual average.
The highest PFAS results were PFOA 5.4 ng/L and PFBS 3.5 ng/L.
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Portsmouth City (latest sample April 2021). 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 Portsmouth City as sampled, most recently December 2023.
| Compound | Highest result | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| PFOA | 5.4 ng/L | 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 Portsmouth City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 51.1 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 51.9 µg/L and the highest single sample was 93.7 µg/L, from 128 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 16.8 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 16.8 µg/L and the highest single sample was 27.9 µg/L, from 128 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 51.1 µg/L (2019) | 51.9 µg/L | 93.7 µg/L | 128 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 16.8 µg/L | 16.8 µg/L | 27.9 µg/L | 128 |
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 94 samples was 1.6 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2013; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 1.1 mg/L. 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) | 94 | 1.6 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 8 | 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 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 4 of 24 samples, highest 1.1 µg/L (limit 3); barium in 8 of 8 samples, highest 46.2 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: alachlor in 24 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 | 24 | 4 of 24 | 1.1 µg/L | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 24 | 0 of 24 | 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 | 46.2 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 3,850 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Portsmouth City tested positive (0%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 481 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 Portsmouth City adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Portsmouth City.
Measured fluoride: 0.88 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.85 to 1.19 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 Portsmouth City, last sampled in 2023 (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.
At the intake, microcystin was detected 2 times in 234 raw-water samples, across 2 bloom seasons (2017 to 2023); the highest raw-water result was 17.4 µg/L on August 30, 2017. There has been no raw-water detection since 2024.
Microcystin was never detected in treated water (78 samples).
In all, 312 samples from 2016 to 2026, the latest on August 12, 2026.
| Water | Samples | Detections | Highest result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw water, at the intake | 234 | 2 | 17.4 µg/L |
| Treated water | 78 | 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 Portsmouth City for a household using 5,000 gallons a month at $462 a year, about $39 a month.
| Use | Water, per year | Sewer, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 gallons a month | $261 | not on file |
| 5,000 gallons a month | $462 | not on file |
| 8,000 gallons a month | $712 | not on file |
The survey lists it as “Portsmouth”. 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
The service area drawn on the map for Portsmouth City comes from the utility's own map.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 27,191 residents are inside the boundary, 67% of the 40,475 people Portsmouth 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 — 7 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 OH7300111 (EPA ECHO).
Portsmouth City's own pages: data.epa.gov, portsmouthohio.org
