Well water in Athens County, Ohio

In Athens County, 5% of 42 tested well samples exceeded the EPA limit for arsenic (10 ug/L), based on public data from USGS Water Quality Portal and Ohio EPA Washington County residential well PFAS sampling.

The strongest signal is PFOA: 73% of 120 local samples were above the limit, too few samples to carry the headline but first on the test list below.

677 test results across 17 contaminants from at least 109 wells, 1973 to 2025; PFOA has the most at 120. Data refreshed September 22, 2026.

Compiled by Nick at Well Water Nerd from public records. How these pages are built

Ohio EPA sampled residential wells around the Chemours Washington Works site in Washington County, and wells with a detection are resampled quarterly. PFAS shares describe wells near a known source, not every well in the county. In that targeted sampling, 73% of 120 PFOA results in Athens County were above the EPA limit of 4 ng/L. In that targeted sampling, 0% of 15 PFOS results in Athens County were above the EPA limit of 4 ng/L.

An estimated 14,291 people in Athens County get their drinking water from a private well, per USGS 2015 county water use. That is about 22% of residents.

Separately, the USGS national arsenic model estimates that <1% of the 14,291 people on private wells in Athens County draw water above 10 ug/L, from geology and well depth rather than local tests.

What individual samples found

Each row summarizes every public sample for that contaminant inside Athens County. Above limit means above the EPA maximum contaminant level; where EPA has no enforceable limit, the row shows a health guideline or nuisance level instead.

Contaminant	Above limit	Samples	Detected	Median	Highest	Limit
PFOA 2004 to 2025	73%	120	78%	32	927	4 ng/L EPA limit
Arsenic 1975 to 2019	5%	42	98%	3	79	10 ug/L EPA limit
Lead 1974 to 2019	2%	45	13%	0	27.2	15 ug/L EPA limit
Fluoride 1978 to 2019	0%	55	33%	0	2.6	4 mg/L EPA limit
Copper 1975 to 2019	0%	42	29%	0	0.379	1.3 mg/L EPA limit
Nitrate 1973 to 2019	0%	40	75%	0.01	2.5	10 mg/L EPA limit
PFOS 2019 to 2025	0%	15	13%	0	3.4	4 ng/L EPA limit
PFHxS 2022 to 2025	0%	14	7%	0	2.5	10 ng/L EPA limit
PFNA 2022 to 2025	0%	14	0%	0	0	10 ng/L EPA limit
Chloride 1973 to 2019	no limit	72	100%	114	1,300	250 mg/L nuisance level
Manganese 1973 to 2019	no limit	72	100%	567	10,000	300 ug/L health guideline
Iron 1973 to 2019	no limit	72	97%	5,000	460,000	300 ug/L nuisance level
Sodium 1973 to 2019	no limit	69	100%	68	870	20 mg/L health guideline

Sampled fewer than 10 times, too few to summarize: Radium (226 + 228) (2), Uranium (1), E. coli (1), Radon (1).

Over time

Share of samples above the limit by period. A cell needs ten samples to show; a comparison needs twenty in each period. Later periods sample fewer wells, and often the ones already known to have a problem.

Contaminant	before 2000	2000s	2010s	2020s
PFOA	n/a	69%26 samples	73%55 samples	74%39 samples
Fluoride	0%15 samples	n/a	0%40 samples	n/a

PFOA has held within a few points between the two most recent periods with enough samples.

Closer than the county

See the sampled wells near your address

The same records, drawn around one point: which wells within a few miles were sampled and what they found, how deep the wells next to you were drilled, and any leaking tank or cleanup site within a mile.

Check my address

What this means

The contaminants most often above their limit here are pfoa (73% of 120 samples), arsenic (5% of 42 samples), and lead (2% of 45 samples). A well next door can differ sharply from yours because bedrock fractures, well depth and plumbing all matter, so these rates describe the area, not your tap.

Chloride, Manganese, and Iron are widespread in local groundwater. They are mainly a staining and taste problem, but high manganese also carries a health advisory for infants.

What to test for in Athens County

1
PFOA
73% of 120 local samples were above the limit.
2
Arsenic
5% of 42 local samples were above the limit.
3
Lead
2% of 45 local samples were above the limit.
4
Coliform bacteria
Recommended for every private well, every year.
5
Radon
Median local reading is 460 pCi/L.
6
Nitrate
Recommended for every private well, especially near farms or septic systems.
7
Chloride
Detected in 100% of local samples.
8
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
215 leaking underground storage tank sites on record locally.
9
Metals panel
4 hazardous waste sites on record locally.

Test your Athens County well for PFOA, arsenic and lead

Certified lab analysis of your own tap water, bottles and prepaid return shipping included. The Essential well panel covers arsenic, uranium, nitrate, lead, copper, manganese, iron, sodium and bacteria; radon and PFAS are add-ons.

Order the Tap Score well water test kit, from $209 Already tested? Upload the report

Just want bacteria checked first? Tap Score coliform and E. coli test, $99. Coliform and E. coli are the tests every well needs every year.

Want a quick look before paying for a lab? Home well water test strips on Amazon check hardness, iron, pH and nitrate in minutes. They are a screen, not a result: arsenic, bacteria, uranium and PFAS need a certified lab.

Affiliate links: the merchant pays us a commission and the price is the same for you. It does not change what the data above says. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Where to get a well tested in Ohio: certified labs, state programs and prices.

Already have results back? Get your lab report read against the Athens County numbers, $29. Every line explained, ranked by what matters, with the fix for each.

Wells in Athens County

801 domestic wells in Athens County are on record with the state since 1970. 89% are drilled into bedrock, and the typical well is 80 feet deep (one in ten goes past 180 feet).

In a typical Athens County well, bedrock starts about 15 feet down, the median yield is 3 gallons per minute, 49% of wells yield under 3 gallons per minute and usually need a storage tank.

Bedrock wells are where arsenic, uranium and radon come from: the water sits in fractures in granite and metamorphic rock and picks up whatever the rock carries. That is why testing for those three matters more here than in a dug or gravel well.

223

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Find your own well's report

The state keeps the driller's report for most wells drilled since 1984. It tells you how deep your well is, where bedrock starts, and how much water it makes, which decides what treatment can work.

Open ODNR water well log search and choose Water Well.
The log lists depth, depth to bedrock, casing, static water level, the pump test and the driller.

Ohio has required well logs since 1948, so most drilled wells have one.

The rock under Athens County

Pennsylvanian aquifers

Sandstone. Sandstone wells draw from pore space in the rock and tend to be dependable. Iron, manganese and hardness are common, and some sandstones carry arsenic or radium, so a first test should include both.

Classification from the USGS Principal Aquifers of the United States (national map, 2003 edition, GIS release 2015), read at the county centroid. A single well can sit in a different unit, especially near a boundary.

Official help in Ohio

Two places to start that are not selling anything: the state program that answers private well questions, and its list of labs certified to run drinking water tests. A certified lab is the difference between a result you can act on and a number.

Private Water Systems Program, Ohio Department of Health
Laboratory Certification, Ohio EPA

Contamination sources on record in Athens County

Ohio EPA records 215 leaking underground storage tank sites and 4 hazardous waste sites in Athens County, among 231 regulated sites in total. Groundwater does not follow property lines, so a well within a few hundred feet of one of these is worth testing for what that site could release.

215: leaking underground storage tank sitesGasoline and heating oil that leaked from tanks move through groundwater as benzene, MTBE and other volatile organic compounds.
4: hazardous waste sitesSolvents, degreasers and metals from industrial sites can travel far in fractured bedrock.
8: lined landfills and transfer facilities
4: other remediation projects

Treatment that fits the local profile

PFOA

Granular activated carbon whole-house; Point-of-use reverse osmosis; Anion exchange

Arsenic

Point-of-use reverse osmosis; Adsorptive media (iron-based) whole-house; Anion exchange

Lead

Point-of-use reverse osmosis; Certified lead-removal carbon filter; Neutralizing filter to raise pH and stop leaching

Manganese

Oxidizing filter (greensand, birm) whole-house; Water softener (low levels); Point-of-use reverse osmosis

Iron

Oxidizing filter whole-house; Water softener (low levels); Aeration plus filtration

Systems we would look at first

Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one, the merchant pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we list or what the data says.

For PFOA

Under-sink reverse osmosis system

under-sink or countertop, about $300

Look for NSF/ANSI 58 certification listing the contaminant you need removed.

For PFOA

Whole-house PFAS carbon system

whole-house, at the point of entry, about $3,000

Granular activated carbon certified to NSF/ANSI 53 for PFOA and PFOS; replace media on schedule.

For PFOA

Aquasana SmartFlow reverse osmosis

under-sink or countertop, about $225

Certified to NSF/ANSI 58 and 53 to reduce arsenic (96%, pentavalent), fluoride (90%), lead (99%), nitrate, nitrite and PFOA/PFOS at the kitchen tap, with a remineralizer.

For arsenic

Whole-house arsenic and uranium filter

whole-house, at the point of entry, about $2,500

Adsorptive iron-based media; sized to your well yield.

For lead

Aquasana Claryum 3-Stage under-sink filter

under-sink or countertop, about $175

Certified to NSF/ANSI 53 to reduce 99% of lead and 99.7% of PFOA and PFOS at the tap. Not a fix for arsenic, nitrate or bacteria.

For lead

Acid neutralizing filter

whole-house, at the point of entry, about $1,200

Raises pH so plumbing stops leaching lead and copper.

Free, no obligation

Get on the list for a free in-home water test in Athens County

No water treatment company serves Athens County through Well Water Nerd yet. We are signing licensed companies on county by county: they test at your tap for free, walk you through the numbers, and quote treatment only if something needs fixing. Leave your details and you are first in line. Nothing is shared until a company joins for Athens County, and you get an email naming it first.

Common questions

How deep are wells in Athens County?

The typical domestic well in Athens County is 80 feet deep, based on 801 wells reported to the state since 1970. One in ten is deeper than 180 feet. 89% are drilled into bedrock.

Is there arsenic in well water in Athens County?

Arsenic was detected in 98% of 42 public well samples in Athens County, and 5% were above the EPA limit of 10 ug/L. Arsenic has no taste or smell; a lab test is the only way to know your level.

How often should I test a private well in Athens County?

Test for bacteria and nitrate every year. Test once for arsenic, uranium, radon, fluoride, manganese and PFAS, then again every three to five years or after any change in taste, color, or plumbing.

Towns in Athens County

12 towns have fewer than 30 public samples and are included in the Athens County totals above rather than shown separately: Alexander township, Ames township, Athens township, Canaan township, Carthage township, Dover township, Lee township, Lodi township, Rome township, Trimble township, Troy township, Waterloo township.

Counties near Athens County

Closest first. Groundwater does not stop at a line on a map, so the next county over is a fair second opinion.

Want the numbers themselves? Download the Ohio dataset as CSV, every county and town, with the sources named.

Sources

USGS Water Quality Portal: 516 samples in Athens County. Data from the Water Quality Portal, a service of USGS, EPA and USDA; groundwater samples collected by USGS and cooperators. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
Ohio EPA Washington County residential well PFAS sampling: 161 samples in Athens County. Residential well PFAS results from Ohio EPA's Washington County drinking water investigation (sampling by AECOM), published on the Ohio EPA GIS server. Retrieved September 22, 2026.
USGS national arsenic model (Ayotte 2017): estimated share of 14,291 people on private wells in Athens County above 10 ug/L of arsenic, from geology, well depth and land use. County estimates of domestic well users with arsenic above 10 ug/L from the USGS national logistic regression model (Ayotte, Medalie and Qi, 2017), with private well population from the USGS 2015 county water-use compilation (Dieter and others, 2018). Retrieved September 15, 2026.
Ohio DNR water well logs: 1,387 well records in Athens County, 801 domestic. Water well logs filed with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Water Resources since 1948. Only aggregates are shown; owner names and addresses are never stored. Retrieved September 17, 2026.
Ohio EPA regulated sites: 231 regulated sites located in Athens County. Remediation sites, leaking underground storage tank releases (BUSTR) and landfills from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Division of State Fire Marshal. Retrieved September 17, 2026.

Non-detects count as samples and are treated as zero when computing medians. Exactly at the limit counts as not above it. A sample belongs to the town containing the well's reported coordinates.