Water system
Bryan City
EPA ID OH8600012 · Williams County · 8,729 people served · owned by a local government
Bryan City treats its own water from Michindoh (Maumee) Glacial Aquifer, groundwater wells.
The system's record
- Aquifer
- Michindoh Glacial Aquifer
- Active wells
- 6
- Serves
- 8,729 people · Williams County
- EPA ID
- OH8600012
About this area's water
Did you know
- Bryan's supply comes from seven artesian wells averaging just 131 feet deep, pumping about 1.5 million gallons a day at roughly 2,000 gallons per minute - shallow, self-pressurizing water that needs only aeration…
- The city charges its own residents a dedicated groundwater-protection surcharge - 75 cents a month residential, a dollar commercial - to fund source water protection.
- Bryan asked the federal government in 2007 to declare the Michindoh aquifer a sole source aquifer for a nine-county tri-state area; U.S. EPA suspended the petition in 2013 over data gaps and it has never been designated.
- Water is only part of the operation: Bryan Municipal Utilities also runs the city's electric system, including a hydroelectric plant on the Auglaize River and a municipal solar field.
History6
- 1940City wastewater treatment plant built (0.8 MGD original design), later expanded to a 3.1 MGD average design flow.
- 2007City of Bryan petitioned U.S. EPA to designate the Michindoh Glacial Aquifer a sole source aquifer for a nine-county area spanning Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
- 2013U.S. EPA indefinitely suspended the sole source aquifer petition pending additional geologic information from the city; as of EPA's latest posting the designation remains suspended.
- 2018Wastewater treatment plant last upgraded (per the 2024 Ohio EPA NPDES permit fact sheet).
- 2018-2019Artesian of Pioneer's proposal to withdraw up to 14 million gallons a day from the Michindoh aquifer for sale to Toledo-area communities drew a Bryan City Council resolution of opposition and…
- 2021Current water rate schedule took effect 12-20-2021.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Groundwater only. BMU's drinking-water page describes seven artesian wells averaging 131 feet deep, pumping about 1.5 million gallons a day at roughly 2,000 gallons per minute (the 2025 CCR describes six wells drawing from the aquifer). Treatment is gravity aeration to oxidize iron and strip carbon…
Source: cityofbryan.netcityofbryan.net
Water pressure
Not published; no psi figure appears in BMU's drinking-water, rate or water-quality materials.
What it costs
$4.14 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $43 a month for water.
Residential rates effective 12-20-2021, inside corporation: $10.25 monthly service charge, $11.50 monthly capacity charge for 5/8-inch through 1-inch meters, plus a commodity…
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) range 22.1-32.8 ppb; no violation | 32.8 ppb | 80 ppb MCL | 2025 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) range 9.3-12.3 ppb; no violation | 12.3 ppb | 60 ppb MCL | 2025 |
| Total chlorine range 0.66-0.89 ppm | 0.8 ppm | 4 ppm MRDL | 2025 |
| Barium erosion of natural deposits | 0.398 ppm | 2 ppm MCL | 2025 |
| Fluoride no violation | 0.94 ppm | 4 ppm MCL | 2025 |
| Nitrate very low, as expected for a confined glacial aquifer | 0.36 ppm | 10 ppm MCL | 2024 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 20 samples above the action level | 0 ppb | 15 ppb action… | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 20 samples above the action level; one individual 2023 sample did hit 1.38 ppm, above the action level | 0.274 ppm | 1.3 ppm action… | 2025 |
| Lithium (unregulated) reported in the 2025 CCR's unregulated-contaminants row; the printed 'typical source' cell for this row appears… | 18.1 ppb | no standard | 2023 |
| PFAS (six compounds) Ohio EPA statewide PFAS sampling initiative; none detected in finished water | ND not… | no standard at… | 2023 |
Source: cityofbryan.net
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 & plans8
Recent and current work
- Water line installation, East Bement Street (100 block) and Navarre Avenue (800-900 block) · 2026 · completed
About 370 feet of 6-inch and 520 feet of 8-inch PVC installed for new services; no cost published. - Wastewater treatment plant upgrade · 2018 · completed
Last plant upgrade recorded in the 2024 Ohio EPA NPDES fact sheet; no cost published.
Source: bryantimes.comdam.assets.ohio.gov
Planned or needed
- Additional well field west of Bryan · planned
BMU says it has initiated development of a new well field for future growth; no cost or completion date published. - Bryan water tower interior painting · 2026 · planned
Listed as an upcoming water department project in July 2026; no cost published. - Waterline replacement - South Emmet Street (300 block) and West Bryan Street (300-500 block) · 2026 · planned
Awaiting Ohio EPA approval as of July 2026; no cost published. - Waterline replacement - East Mulberry Street (700-900 block) · 2026 · under construction
Scheduled to begin in late August 2026; no cost published. - Lead service line inventory updates · 2026 · planned
Ongoing compliance work under the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions. - Water rate study · 2026 · planned
Listed by Bryan Municipal Utilities as a planned initiative; current rates date to December 2021.
Source: cityofbryan.netbryantimes.com
Supply stress
Bryan is entirely dependent on one groundwater source: the city says flatly that it is 'extremely dependent on our ground water supply' from the Michindoh Glacial Aquifer, which also supplies most of Williams County and parts of Defiance and Fulton counties plus adjacent Michigan and Indiana. Bryan petitioned U.S. EPA in 2007 for federal…
Sewers
Sanitary
City of Bryan WWTP at 1521 Evansport Road, built in 1940 and last upgraded in 2018, with an average design flow of 3.1 MGD (the city's own page says 3.14 MGD design, expanded from 0.8 MGD) and a 7.0 MGD peak hydraulic capacity; average flow is about 2 MGD. It serves the city plus Pulaski and Jefferson townships through seven satellite…
Storm
Bryan has 100% separated sewers per the 2024 Ohio EPA NPDES fact sheet, so storm flow does not enter the wastewater plant. City and BMU rate material lists no separate stormwater utility fee.
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
- 43506 · Bryan60% 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
Bryan 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 Bryan City.
What the records show about Bryan City
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Bryan City as owned by a local government. It has 3,987 service connections and serves 8,729 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 2025. Its office telephone on EPA's record is 419-633-6100.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Bryan City: aeration, corrosion control, chlorine disinfection, 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 Bryan City since 2015.
EPA logs no violations of any kind for Bryan City 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 Bryan 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.
The highest result on file is 9 ppb, in the period ending December 2017.
EPA has 9 sampling periods on file for Bryan 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 Bryan City sent EPA, 3,894 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 643 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 49 |
| Unknown material | 1,435 |
| Not lead | 1,767 |
| All lines | 3,894 |
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 Bryan 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 Bryan 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 Bryan City's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 39 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 46.4 µg/L and the highest single sample was 46.4 µg/L, from 15 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 10.7 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 15.8 µg/L and the highest single sample was 21.1 µg/L, from 15 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 39 µg/L (2019) | 46.4 µg/L | 46.4 µg/L | 15 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 10.7 µg/L | 15.8 µg/L | 21.1 µg/L | 15 |
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 8 samples through 2019 (limit 10 mg/L as nitrogen; 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) | 8 | not detected | 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 406 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: atrazine, alachlor, chromium, cadmium, mercury, selenium, and thallium, in 3 samples each.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | 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 | 406 µg/L | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Selenium | Metal | 50 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 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 1,076 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Bryan City tested positive (0%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 121 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 Bryan City has fluoride from natural sources at the recommended level for preventing tooth decay. The level it reports is 1.05 mg/L.
EPA's treatment table lists no fluoridation step at Bryan City.
Measured fluoride: 1.05 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2019 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.97 to 1.25 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 found in 2 of 2 UCMR 5 samples at Bryan City, highest 18.1 µg/L; detections averaged 16.1, 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 Bryan 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 9,012 residents are inside the boundary, 103% of the 8,729 people Bryan 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 OH8600012 (EPA ECHO).
Bryan City's own pages: cityofbryan.net, 19january2017snapshot.epa.gov
Notable facts: cityofbryan.net, cityofbryan.net, epa.gov, cityofbryan.net
History: cityofbryan.net, epa.gov, dam.assets.ohio.gov, archboldbuckeye.com
Water quality: cityofbryan.net
Planned work: cityofbryan.net, bryantimes.com
Capital projects: bryantimes.com, dam.assets.ohio.gov
Rates: cityofbryan.net, cityofbryan.net, bryantimes.com
Sewers: dam.assets.ohio.gov, cityofbryan.com
Treatment: cityofbryan.net, cityofbryan.net
Supply stress: cityofbryan.net, epa.gov, archboldbuckeye.com, 13abc.com