Lancaster City Pws, OH
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.8 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. Lead was measured in sampled homes but the 90th percentile is under both action levels. EPA's health goal for lead is zero, so test your own tap if your home was built before 1986 or anyone in it is pregnant or a young child.
Lancaster City Pws at a glance
Lancaster City Pws serves about 40,400 people through 15,783 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Fairfield County, Ohio. EPA system ID: OH2301012; phone on file: 740-687-6631. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2024 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Lancaster City Pws is 1.9 ppb across 9 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.8 ppb |
| 2024 | 1 ppb |
| 2023 | 0.8 ppb |
| 2022 | 0.6 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.9 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
How Lancaster City Pws compares
Of the 1,079 Ohio systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.7 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 27 have gone over at some point. Lancaster City Pws's 0.8 ppb sits at the 54th percentile in Ohio and the 48th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
20 other systems share Fairfield County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Lancaster City Pws. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pickerington City Pws | 19,141 | 0.6 ppb |
| Fairfield County Utilities Pws | 19,113 | 0 (not detected) |
| Millersport Village Pws | 3,200 | 0.6 ppb |
| Baltimore Village Pws | 2,995 | 2.1 ppb |
| Canal Pointe Industrial Park Pws | 1,721 | 0.5 ppb |
| Lithopolis Village Pws | 1,573 | 3.1 ppb |
| Odrc-Southeastern Correctional Institute | 1,461 | 0.5 ppb |
| Little Walnut Water Treatment Facility | 1,428 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bremen Village | 1,425 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pleasantville Village Pws | 960 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Lancaster, OH may offer free or low-cost kits through the utility. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Lancaster City Pws whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do.
These figures describe homes the utility sampled, not your tap. Only your service line record or a test of your own water answers the question for your house. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.