Ashtabula County, Ohio: drinking water report. Ashtabula County in Ohio's northeastern corner has about 97,000 residents along the Lake Erie shore.
Ashtabula County in Ohio's northeastern corner has about 97,000 residents along the Lake Erie shore. The city of Ashtabula and other lakeside communities draw from Lake Erie, while inland areas rely on groundwater. The county's industrial past includes chemical manufacturing, metalworking, and one of the most contaminated rivers in the Great Lakes basin.
The Ashtabula River was designated a Great Lakes Area of Concern due to contamination from industrial facilities along its banks. According to Ohio EPA's 2024 remediation report, sediment contamination included PCBs, heavy metals, and volatile organic compounds from the Fields Brook Superfund site and other facilities. Over 600,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment have been removed, and the river is approaching delisting.
The former Ashtabula Airport has documented AFFF use. Ohio EPA's 2024 PFAS investigation found PFOS at 10 ppt in monitoring wells near the facility. Lake Erie source water for the county carries the same algal bloom and trace contaminant concerns as other communities along the southern shore.
Ashtabula County's industrial cleanup has improved river conditions significantly, but the contamination was decades in the making and residual impacts persist in groundwater near former industrial sites. Lake Erie water is treated and monitored.
We recommend checking your water for current results. For the industrial legacy and emerging contaminants in this area, reverse osmosis at the kitchen tap provides reliable protection. Our water filter guide covers systems suited to Great Lakes and industrial-area water. Pull your detailed report for historical data, and visit our Ohio page for statewide patterns.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Ashtabula County, OH.
The EPA places Ashtabula County, OH in Zone 2 - a moderate-risk category, with a predicted average indoor radon level between 2 and 4 pCi/L. Zone maps predict an area's radon potential from geology and existing indoor readings; they say nothing about a specific house. Testing is the only way to know your own level.
72% of homes in Ashtabula County, OH were built before 1980, and 37% before 1950. Residential lead paint was banned in 1978, so housing age is the strongest available proxy for lead-paint exposure. This describes the county's housing stock, not any one home.
Modelled annual fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) in Ashtabula County, OH averages 7.4 µg/m³, within the EPA's annual standard of 9 µg/m³. These are CDC modelled county estimates rather than readings from a specific monitor.
How radon zones work · Air quality by county · Lead exposure guide
10 public water systems serving Ashtabula County, OH have EPA lead testing on record. The reported lead sample skews toward systems that already flagged a problem, so its exceedance rate is not directly comparable with other areas. 3 water systems serving Ashtabula County, OH carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 2 |
| Surface Water Treatment Rule | 1 |
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 1 |
Source: EPA Lead and Copper Rule 90th-percentile tap sampling and EPA SDWIS Safe Drinking Water Act enforcement records, aggregated from the public water systems serving this county. Figures are counts of water systems, not a test of any individual home or tap.