Northern Ohio Rural Water, OH
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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.
Who runs the water here
Northern Ohio Rural Water serves about 18,224 people through 7,912 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 surface water, in Huron County, Ohio. EPA system ID: OH3902403; phone on file: 419-668-7213. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Northern Ohio Rural Water's lead record
That is up 4 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Northern Ohio Rural Water is 4 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
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. Northern Ohio Rural Water's 4 ppb sits at the 94th percentile in Ohio and the 88th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
12 other systems share Huron County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Northern Ohio Rural Water. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Norwalk City Pws | 17,466 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bellevue City | 8,236 | 0 (not detected) |
| Willard City | 7,099 | 0 (not detected) |
| Northern Ohio Rural Water-South District | 5,226 | 0 (not detected) |
| New London Village Pws | 3,226 | 0.5 ppb |
| Greenwich Village Pws | 1,476 | 2.1 ppb |
| Monroeville Village | 1,400 | 0 (not detected) |
| Wakeman Village Pws | 1,047 | 0 (not detected) |
| Northern Ohio Rural Water - Camp Road | 758 | 0 (not detected) |
| Northern Ohio Rural Water - Se District | 586 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Norwalk, OH
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Norwalk, 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 Northern Ohio Rural Water 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.