Water system
Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills
EPA ID OH7901612 · Tuscarawas County · 6,587 people served
Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills treats its own water from Groundwater wells (2 wells).
The system's record
- Active wells
- 2
- Serves
- 6,587 people · Tuscarawas County
- EPA ID
- OH7901612
About this area's water
Did you know
- The utility's own address is 9944 Wilkshire Boulevard NE - the water system is named for the subdivision its office and treatment plant sit in.
- TCMSD pumped just over 202 million gallons of drinking water in 2025 and puts the replacement value of its water and sewer assets at about $170 million.
- The Village of Bolivar buys its water from the Wilkshire Hills system through two master meters, so a canal town platted in 1830 drinks from two wells drilled beside a 20th-century subdivision.
- Fort Laurens, the only Revolutionary War fort built in Ohio, went up near Bolivar in 1778.
- The 2025 water quality report had to be reissued on 5/14/2026 to delete a duplicate nickel entry that had been printed twice in the Wilkshire Hills table.
History6
- 1778Fort Laurens, Ohio's only Revolutionary War fort, is built near the site of present-day Bolivar.
- 1830Bolivar is platted as part of the growth generated by the Ohio and Erie Canal, long before any public water system existed here.
- 1973The Tuscarawas County Metropolitan Sewer District is formed by the county commissioners; it operates water service under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 6103.
- 2020Ohio EPA completes the Source Water Assessment for the Wilkshire Hills groundwater supply, rating its susceptibility to contamination as High.
- 2025TCMSD holds an unconditioned license to operate the Wilkshire Hills system and pumps just over 202 million gallons across its three water systems.
- 2026A third Wilkshire Hills groundwater well is under construction and scheduled to go into service; new water and sewer rates take effect January 1.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Groundwater from two wells next to the Wilkshire Hills Water Treatment Facility, one of three treatment plants TCMSD operates. Finished water is chlorinated (2025 residual 1.09 ppm, range 0.92-1.17) and distributed over roughly 90 miles of district water main with 10 storage tanks and booster pump…
Water pressure
Not published. TCMSD publishes no pressure zones or psi figures on tcmsd.org or in its 2025 water quality report.
What it costs
$6.35 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $49 a month for water.
TCMSD retail water rates effective January 1, 2026: $23.97 monthly base charge for a 5/8-inch residential meter plus $6.35 per 1,000 gallons; larger meters $32.54 (3/4-inch) up to…
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range of detections 4.66-4.77; far below the MCL. | 4.77 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| Haloacetic acids (HAA5) Range 6.61-12.5. | 12.5 ppb | 60 | 2025 |
| Chlorine Range 0.92-1.17. | 1.09 ppm | MRDL 4 | 2025 |
| Nitrate | 2.13 ppm | 10 | 2025 |
| Fluoride Range 1.00-2.79. TCMSD's table labels the fluoride row 'ppb', but the MCL it prints (4) is the 4 ppm fluoride MCL, so… | 1.19 ppm | 4 | 2025 |
| Barium | 0.07 ppm | 2 | 2025 |
| Chromium | 2.25 ppb | 100 | 2025 |
| Selenium | 1.41 ppb | 50 | 2025 |
| Combined radium | 0.23 pCi/L | 5 | 2025 |
| Gross alpha emitters Sampled less often than yearly, as Ohio EPA allows. | 1.04 pCi/L | 15 | 2022 |
Source: tcmsd.orgdata.epa.gov
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
Projects & plans4
Recent and current work
- Lead and Copper Rule service line inventory · 2025 · completed
Inventory maintained and viewable at the district office. Wilkshire Hills has some service lines of unknown material and fewer than 10 galvanized lines…
Source: tcmsd.org
Planned or needed
- Third Wilkshire Hills groundwater well · 2026 · under construction
Stated in the 2025 water quality report as under construction and scheduled to go into service in 2026. No cost published. - Water transmission line connecting Wilkshire Hills to the City of Canton · planned
Listed in the 2025 report's capital improvement paragraph as a secondary source of water in an emergency. No cost or date published. - Replacement of aging water lines · proposed
The district says these are all dependent on obtaining adequate grants and loans. No cost or date published.
Source: tcmsd.org
Supply stress
Ohio EPA rated the Wilkshire Hills groundwater supply's susceptibility to contamination High in its 2020 Source Water Assessment - a statement about vulnerability, not current quality; the 2025 results show no MCL exceedances and an unconditioned license to operate, and EPA records show a single monitoring violation in 1995, resolved in…
Source: tcmsd.orgdata.epa.gov
Sewers
Sanitary
TCMSD's Wilkshire Hills wastewater treatment plant, rated 750,000 gallons per day, serves Bolivar, Hunters Green, the Lawrence Township Industrial Park, Wilkshire Hills and Zoar. District-wide TCMSD runs 73 miles of sewers, 24 major pump stations and about 550 septic tank systems for roughly 10,000 residents. Monthly sewer rates…
Storm
Not published. Neither TCMSD nor the county publishes storm sewer information for Bolivar or Wilkshire Hills.
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 2 ZIP codes
- 44612 · Lawrence Township and Bolivar53% of residents
- 44697 · Zoar40% 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
Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
1 system on record buys water from Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills: Bolivar Village.
What the records show about Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills
Who runs it
EPA's record says Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills has 2,259 service connections and serves 6,587 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills: corrosion control, chlorine disinfection, iron and manganese removal, and fluoridation.
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 Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills since 2015.
EPA logs no violations of any kind for Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills 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 Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills was 0 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027. A result of 0 means at least nine in ten of the homes sampled had no lead detected.
The highest result on file is 4.3 ppb, in the period ending December 2021.
EPA has 9 sampling periods on file for Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills 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 Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills sent EPA, 2,199 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 1 |
| Unknown material | 1,341 |
| Not lead | 857 |
| All lines | 2,199 |
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 2 samples of the water entering the pipes of Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills in 2024 and measured 29 PFAS. No PFAS was detected, PFOA and PFOS (federal limit 4 ng/L each) among them.
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills (latest sample August 2020). Not one of the six PFAS tested (PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX and PFBS) was detected.
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 Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 9.5 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 13.9 µg/L and the highest single sample was 17.3 µg/L, from 14 samples taken from 2013 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 3.9 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 5.8 µg/L and the highest single sample was 8 µg/L, from 14 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 9.5 µg/L (2019) | 13.9 µg/L | 17.3 µg/L | 14 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 3.9 µg/L | 5.8 µg/L | 8 µg/L | 14 |
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 9 samples was 2.22 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2018; in 2019, the last year sampled, nitrate was not detected. No sample was over the limit of 10 mg/L. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants.
Arsenic was not detected in 3 samples (limit 10 µg/L).
| Contaminant | Samples | Highest result | Limit | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 9 | 2.22 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 3 | 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 3 samples each.
| Compound | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benzene | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| 1,2-dichloroethane | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Trichloroethylene (TCE) | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Vinyl chloride | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | 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 3 of 3 samples, highest 114 µg/L (limit 2,000); selenium in 3 of 3 samples, highest 4.55 µg/L (limit 50). Not detected: atrazine in 4 samples, alachlor in 4 samples, chromium in 3 samples, cadmium in 3 samples, mercury in 3 samples, thallium in 3 samples.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 4 | 0 of 4 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 4 | 0 of 4 | not detected | 0 |
| Chromium | Metal | 100 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Cadmium | Metal | 5 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Barium | Metal | 2,000 µg/L | 3 | 3 of 3 | 114 µg/L | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Selenium | Metal | 50 µg/L | 3 | 3 of 3 | 4.55 µg/L | 0 |
| Thallium | Metal | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | 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 674 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills tested positive (0%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 86 did. E. coli was never found in the 527 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 Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills.
Measured fluoride: 1.1 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 1 to 1.16 mg/L across 3 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 2 UCMR 5 samples at Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills, last sampled in 2024 (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.
Water and sewer bills
Ohio EPA's 2023 rate survey puts the water bill at Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills for a household using 5,000 gallons a month at $595 a year, about $50 a month.
| Use | Water, per year | Sewer, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 gallons a month | $425 | not on file |
| 5,000 gallons a month | $595 | not on file |
| 8,000 gallons a month | $798 | not on file |
The survey lists it as “TCMSD - Wilkshire Hills”. 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
EPA estimated the service area of Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills with a computer model rather than drawing it from the utility's map, so its edges are approximate.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 3,003 residents are inside the boundary, 46% of the 6,587 people Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills reports serving. With so much of its territory outside the polygon, part of the system shows on the map as private wells.
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 — 2 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 OH7901612 (EPA ECHO).
Notable facts: tcmsd.org, tcmsd.org, tcmsd.org, en.wikipedia.org
History: tcmsd.org, tcmsd.org, en.wikipedia.org
Water quality: tcmsd.org, data.epa.gov
Planned work: tcmsd.org
Water pressure: tcmsd.org, tcmsd.org
Capital projects: tcmsd.org
Treatment: tcmsd.org, tcmsd.org
Supply stress: tcmsd.org, data.epa.gov
