Greene County, Ohio: drinking water report. Greene County east of Dayton has about 167,000 residents in communities including Xenia, Fairborn, and…
Greene County east of Dayton has about 167,000 residents in communities including Xenia, Fairborn, and Beavercreek. The county draws from the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer and the Mad River. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base – the U.S. Air Force's largest and oldest research facility – straddles the Greene-Montgomery county line and has a significant water quality impact.
Wright-Patterson AFB has extensive PFAS contamination from AFFF use across multiple fire training areas and aircraft hangars. According to the Air Force's 2024 environmental investigation, PFOS concentrations in monitoring wells near the base exceed 200 ppt in some locations – 50 times the federal MCL. The contamination plume extends off-base into the Fairborn area and toward the Mad River.
The Great Miami Aquifer beneath Greene County shows PFAS detections related to both the base and other sources. Ohio EPA's 2024 PFAS investigation documented combined PFAS at 28 ppt in public water supply monitoring wells in the Fairborn area. The base has been providing bottled water and installing treatment systems for affected private well users.
Greene County residents near Wright-Patterson AFB face some of the highest documented PFAS exposure levels in Ohio. The Air Force has been conducting residential well testing and providing alternative water supply – if you are on a private well near the base and have not been contacted, reach out to the base environmental office.
Check your water for current data. For PFAS at Wright-Patterson-area concentrations, reverse osmosis is essential. Our water filter guide covers systems with the highest certified PFAS removal. Get your detailed report for trends, and visit our Ohio page for statewide data.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Greene County, OH.
The EPA places Greene County, OH in Zone 1 - the EPA's highest-risk category, where the predicted average indoor radon level is above 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.
57% of homes in Greene County, OH were built before 1980, and 13% 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 Greene County, OH averages 8.8 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
22 public water systems serving Greene 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. 5 water systems serving Greene County, OH carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule | 3 |
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 1 |
| Revised Total Coliform Rule | 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.