Defiance City

Water Quality Snapshot: Defiance City

Defiance City is a local-owned community water system that delivers drinking water to 16,494 residents in Defiance, Ohio (Defiance County) through 6,615 service connections. Its water is drawn from surface water sources. EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System records 386 total violations for this system , of which 297 (77%) are health-based, meaning a contaminant exceeded an EPA Maximum Contaminant Level or a required treatment technique failed. A further 55 monitoring and reporting violations are on file. The most recent violation on record dates to 2022.

The most frequently cited contaminant at this system is TTHM, recorded in 194 violations (MCL, health-based). Under EPA's UCMR5 PFAS monitoring program, 3 PFAS compounds were detected in samples collected from this system, with a maximum reported concentration of 6.8 ppt (parts per trillion). PFAS are persistent synthetic chemicals linked to health effects at very low exposure levels.

Across Ohio, EPA tracks 4,181 public water systems serving 11,085,226 people, with 288,388 cumulative violations and 52,412 health-based violations on record. About 90% of systems in the state carry at least one violation, and state-wide the average per system is 69 violations. Statewide, 204 of 346 UCMR5-tested systems have reported PFAS detections (59%).

Defiance City's 386 violations sit above the Ohio average.

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