Town of Ocean City

Water Quality Snapshot: Town of Ocean City

Town of Ocean City is a local-owned community water system that delivers drinking water to 30,000 residents in Ocean City, Maryland (Worcester County) through 7,067 service connections. Its water is drawn from groundwater sources. EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System records 26 total violations for this system , of which 7 (27%) are health-based, meaning a contaminant exceeded an EPA Maximum Contaminant Level or a required treatment technique failed. A further 14 monitoring and reporting violations are on file. The most recent violation on record dates to 2025.

The most frequently cited contaminant at this system is Fluoride, recorded in 12 violations (MR). This system was sampled under EPA's UCMR5 PFAS monitoring program and no PFAS compounds were detected above the minimum reporting level.

Across Maryland, EPA tracks 3,215 public water systems serving 6,070,211 people, with 60,496 cumulative violations and 18,132 health-based violations on record. About 80% of systems in the state carry at least one violation, and state-wide the average per system is 18.8 violations. Statewide, 50 of 83 UCMR5-tested systems have reported PFAS detections (60.2%).

Town of Ocean City's 26 violations sit above the Maryland average.

All figures above are sourced directly from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 public data releases and are updated as EPA publishes new reporting cycles.