Water Quality & Forever Chemicals
You searched "is Dayton tap water safe," and a screen of acronyms is no way to answer that. Plainly: this page summarizes what public federal water records show for Dayton, Ohio. Dayton is a bit unusual in that much of the region leans on a well-regarded buried-valley aquifer rather than a river intake, which shapes the picture. What changes house to house is the specific utility serving you and its exact source.
4
PFAS detections in nearby water systems
EPA UCMR 5 (2021–2024) results matching the city name
0
Industrial PFAS facilities in city
EPA TRI 2024 reporting
2
DoD PFAS installations statewide
In Ohio
Dayton is notable for sitting over the Great Miami buried-valley aquifer, and much of the region's drinking water tends to be drawn from that groundwater rather than surface intakes. Across the broader Miami Valley, supplies largely lean on this well-established aquifer system. The exact wells feeding any one neighborhood can vary, so read this as the regional pattern, not a precise statement about a single address.
In the Dayton area, the system serving your address can differ from one a township away, and two homes a mile apart can sit on different public water systems. The utility listed above is the place to begin: most publish an annual Consumer Confidence Report, free and readable, and a quick call covers the rest. Reviewing those records is genuinely worth doing when evaluating an address, rather than assuming a city-level summary describes your particular tap.
Hardness, the chalky residue and the water heater that wheezes early, is the everyday-comfort worry, not a health one. The federal data this page summarizes includes no hardness reading, so there's no figure to give for Dayton. Aquifer-fed groundwater across much of the Miami Valley tends to run hard, but the trustworthy number is your own: a test strip, or the hardness line your utility often prints in its annual report.
EPA required public water systems serving 3,300+ people to test 29 PFAS compounds between 2021 and 2024.
City-level numbers describe the broad pattern around Dayton; two homes a mile apart can sit on different water systems with very different profiles. The address report fills that gap — it identifies the public water system serving a specific property, lists any PFAS detections on that exact system, and maps the nearby industrial and Superfund sources.
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EPA data tells you what your utility reported on the days they tested. A Tap Score kit tells you what's coming out of your faucet, right now. Mail-in lab, certified results in about a week. The same labs cities use.
Order a Tap Score kit →Guide
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This page lays out what public federal records like UCMR 5 show for Dayton rather than declaring it safe or unsafe. Detection isn't the same as an exceedance, and UCMR 5 mostly covers larger systems, so a quiet result means "no records turned up," not "certified clean." The address-level answer only comes from the specific system serving your home.
Start with the system or systems shown for Dayton on this page, then look up that utility's published contact info and its annual Consumer Confidence Report, which is free. Since adjacent addresses can be served by different public water systems, it's worth confirming which utility actually delivers to your street rather than assuming the city-wide provider.
Dayton sits over the Great Miami buried-valley aquifer, and much of the region's drinking water tends to be drawn from that groundwater rather than a river intake. Across the Miami Valley, supplies largely lean on this aquifer. Your specific neighborhood's wells can vary, so confirm the details with the utility serving your address.
We can't quote a hardness number for Dayton, because that value isn't in the federal dataset this page summarizes. Aquifer groundwater across the Miami Valley tends to run hard, but the reliable way to know yours is a test strip or kit, or the hardness figure many utilities list in their annual Consumer Confidence Report. It's a household nuisance, not a safety issue.
Enter an address — we'll identify the serving water utility, pull PFAS detections, FEMA flood zone, and nearby Superfund sites, then give you a plain-English A–F grade. $19.99 single, $29.99 two-address bundle.
One-time report. PFAS, water violations, Superfund sites, flood zone, air quality, and a plain-English A–F grade for the address.
More Ohio data: Superfund sites · PFAS in Ohio
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