Water system
Rittman City
EPA ID OH8503012 · Wayne County · 6,491 people served · owned by a local government
Rittman City treats its own water from Groundwater wells (3 wells).
The system's record
- Active wells
- 3
- Serves
- 6,491 people · Wayne County
- EPA ID
- OH8503012
About this area's water
Did you know
- Rittman's drinking water isn't from Rittman: all three production wells and the water department itself sit west of town in Milton Township near Sterling, at 6700 Sterling Rd.
- The emergency backup well sits behind the softball fields on Industrial Street west of River Styx — Ohio EPA rates it high-susceptibility because the aquifer is shallow with only a thin clay cap, and the city didn't…
- The town is named for a railroad treasurer, not a settler or founder: after Arkona, Ellio, Milton Station and New Prospect all failed to stick, the B&O simply named its 1888 station for Frederick B. Rittman.
- The 1897 salt strike produced Wayne Salt, which became the Ohio Salt Company and then, in 1948, Morton Salt.
- The 2025 consumer confidence report spends a full paragraph correcting the 2024 one — barium, arsenic, copper's 90th percentile, a wrong year on TTHM, two wrong MCLGs, and 2021-2022 detections that had been left out of…
Source: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.comrittman.comrittman.com
History6
- 1814William Doyle and John Coleman take title to the land on July 23, 1814, becoming the first settlers; within a month eight families buy land in Wayne County and begin clearing and farming.
- 1888The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opens an unnamed station here and eventually names it for its treasurer, Frederick B. Rittman — after Arkona (dropped for sounding too much like Akron), Ellio, Milton…
- 1897Salt deposits are discovered, leading to Wayne Salt, which became the Ohio Salt Company and, in 1948, Morton Salt — a long-running major employer.
- 1903E.J. Young founds the Ohio Boxboard Company to package salt and matches, becoming another significant local employer.
- 2025Ohio EPA notifies the city on June 10, 2025 of a significant deficiency — failure to perform periodic on-site investigation of commercial connections — and directs correction by January 1, 2026. The…
- 2025A routine total coliform sample taken July 10, 2025 returns positive at one address, triggering repeat sampling at that address and upstream and downstream of it. No violation resulted, and the city…
Source: rittman.comfiles-backend.assets.thrillshare.comen.wikipedia.org
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Rittman draws from three sand-and-gravel groundwater wells in a city well field west of town in Milton Township near Sterling (the water department is at 6700 Sterling Rd., Sterling), plus an emergency backup well (#5) on Industrial Street behind the softball fields west of River Styx, which was…
Source: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.comrittman.com
Water pressure
not published; no pressure or pressure-zone data appears in the CCR or anywhere on the city site.
What it costs
Not published. The city's Utilities (Water & Sewer) page gives no rate schedule, minimum charge or billing unit, and the CCR carries none; rates live in the codified ordinances on…
Source: rittman.comlibrary.municode.com
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range 48.9-74.1; disinfection byproduct, no violation. | 61.5 ppb | 80 (MCL) | 2025 |
| Haloacetic acids (HAA5) Range <6.0-7.8; disinfection byproduct, no violation. | 6.9 ppb | 60 (MCL) | 2025 |
| Chlorine Range 1.5-2.4. Disinfectant residual. | 1.9 ppm | 4.0 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Fluoride Range 0.70-1.22; water additive plus natural deposits, well within the MCL. | 0.96 ppm | 4.0 (MCL) | 2025 |
| Barium Range 0.047-0.080. The 2024 CCR had misreported this as 0.045 ppm; the 2025 report corrects it. | 0.071 ppm | 2 (MCL) | 2025 |
| Arsenic Range 0-<9.6; naturally occurring. The 2024 CCR reported it as <3.0 ppb with an MCLG of 10 ppb; the 2025 report… | 1.0 ppb | 10 (MCL) | 2025 |
| Gross alpha Range <3.0-4.46; naturally occurring radioactivity. This 2022 detection was omitted from the 2024 CCR table and… | 4.46 pCi/L | 15 (MCL) | 2022 |
| Radium-228 Range 0-1.16; naturally occurring radioactivity. Also omitted from the 2024 CCR table and restored in 2025. | 1.16 pCi/L | 5 (MCL) | 2022 |
| Lead (90th percentile) Range 0-<2.0. Triannual lead testing was done in 2024; the next round is scheduled for 2027. | non-detect ppb | 15 (AL) | 2024 |
| Copper (90th percentile) Range 0.012-0.760, below the action level. The 2024 CCR had reported the 90th percentile as 0.760 ppm; the 2025 report… | 0.398 ppm | 1.3 (AL) | 2024 |
Source: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2024 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
5 violations of any kind logged since 2020: 5 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Projects & plans1
Planned or needed
- Backflow prevention corrective action plan · 2025-2026 · under construction
Ohio EPA identified the significant deficiency in periodic on-site investigation of commercial connections on June 10, 2025 and directed correction by January…
Supply stress
The three active sand-and-gravel wells carry a moderate susceptibility to contamination, reflecting the moderate sensitivity of the aquifer; susceptibility is judged from local geology, potential pollution sources and groundwater data. Ohio EPA rates the emergency backup well (#5) HIGH susceptibility because of significant potential…
Sewers
Sanitary
The city's utilities department handles wastewater collection and treatment alongside water, from a sewer department at 100 Morningstar Dr. The city publishes no plant description, design capacity, receiving stream, NPDES status or consent-decree information anywhere on its site, and previously reported WPCLF/OWDA-funded plant upgrades —…
Storm
not published
Source: rittman.com
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 1 ZIP code
- 44270 · Rittman72% 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
Rittman City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Rittman City.
What the records show about Rittman City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Rittman City as owned by a local government. It has 3,000 service connections and serves 6,491 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
Its office telephone on EPA's record is 330-925-2045.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Rittman City: 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 Rittman City since 2015.
EPA logs 5 violations of any kind since 2020: 5 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 2024, the 90th-percentile lead result at Rittman City 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.
EPA has 4 sampling periods on file for Rittman City 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 Rittman City sent EPA, 2,617 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 5 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 28 |
| Unknown material | 1,000 |
| Not lead | 1,584 |
| All lines | 2,617 |
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 Rittman City in 2023 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 Rittman City (latest sample July 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 Rittman City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 47.4 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 47.4 µg/L and the highest single sample was 54.3 µg/L, from 14 samples taken from 2013 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 4.2 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 4.2 µg/L and the highest single sample was 8.3 µg/L, from 14 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 47.4 µg/L (2019) | 47.4 µg/L | 54.3 µg/L | 14 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 4.2 µg/L | 4.2 µg/L | 8.3 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 was not detected in 17 samples through 2019 (limit 10 mg/L as nitrogen; above 10 is unsafe for infants).
Arsenic: the highest of 77 samples was 3.7 µg/L (limit 10); detections averaged 3.4; none over the limit.
| Contaminant | Samples | Highest result | Limit | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 17 | not detected | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 77 | 3.7 µg/L | 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 83 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 | 83 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 697 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Rittman City tested positive (0.72%); in 2019, the last year on file, 1 of 85 did. E. coli was never found in the 10 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 Rittman City adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Rittman City.
Measured fluoride: 0.61 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.25 to 0.97 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 found in 4 of 4 UCMR 5 samples at Rittman City, highest 27 µg/L; detections averaged 22.1, last sampled in 2023.
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
EPA estimated the service area of Rittman City 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 6,028 residents are inside the boundary, 93% of the 6,491 people Rittman 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 — 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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH8503012 (EPA ECHO).
Notable facts: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com, rittman.com, rittman.com
History: rittman.com, files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com, en.wikipedia.org
Water quality: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com
Planned work: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com
Rates: rittman.com, library.municode.com
Sewers: rittman.com
Treatment: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com, rittman.com
Supply stress: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com
