Arsenic is worth checking in Geauga County wells.
1 worth checking, 3 rare out of 4 health checks.
From 26 wells tested in Geauga County since 2001; your own well needs its own test. How to read this
Not charted, because fewer than 10 wells were tested: uranium (1), lead (9).
Rare: under 5%Worth checking: 5 to 15%Widespread: 15%+
Lab results: Water Quality Portal (USGS and EPA)
Who drinks from a well here
8 in 10 people 76,987 people
Nobody else tests these wells. Only you do.
People on wells: EPA researchers' 2020 estimate
How deep wells go here
Middle depth: some shelter from the surface, not complete.
Well depths: US Groundwater Well Database
Radon risk (a gas from rock)
Possible here. A home air test is inexpensive.
Radon zones: EPA map
Here's how Geauga County compares with Ohio and the counties around it.
Each result puts Geauga County next to the 6 counties that border it, on the chart's 0 to 50% scale.
This one is worth checking in Geauga County.
Arsenic3 of 21 wells over
These 3 are rare in Geauga County.
Manganese1 of 26 wells over
Too few tested to show: Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lake, Summit, Trumbull.
Nitrate0 of 22 wells over
Fluoride0 of 26 wells over
Too few tested to show: Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lake, Summit, Trumbull.
Too few Geauga County wells were tested for these 2.
Uranium1 well tested
Lead9 wells tested
Coliform bacteria turned up in 7 of 21 tested Geauga County wells, so test for it every year.
Coliform bacteria7 of 21 wells had it
E. coli0 of 21 wells had it
E. coli means human or animal waste is getting in, so if a test of your Geauga County well finds it, boil drinking water until the well is fixed.
Iron reached staining levels in 16 of 26 tested wells, and it isn't a health risk.
Iron stains16 of 26 wells had it
Too few tested to show: Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lake, Summit, Trumbull.
Most of the 26 wells tested in Geauga County were last tested before 2010.
An old result shows the water as it was then, so treat these 26 wells as a starting point and test your own.
Most Geauga County wells in these records were tested for research or because someone suspected a problem, which can push the shares above what a typical home well would show (how we read the numbers).
One mail-in lab test covers the 3 things to check in Geauga County.
- Bacteria
- Nitrate
- Arsenic
What Ohio offers well owners
- Free testingWe didn't find a free program for all of Ohio. Ohio's private well page
- Certified labsOhio's list of certified labs
- Well recordsOhio's well record search
Half the household wells here are shallower than 102 feet.
That comes from 14,686 household wells in Ohio's drilling records. Most wells of every kind here are 78 to 140 feet deep. Wells as deep as Geauga County's are usually better protected from fertilizer and bacteria at the surface, but they can pick up more of what's in the rock, like arsenic and uranium. Typical household wells here go deeper than in 65 of the 87 other Ohio counties with enough drilling records.
Look up your own well's depth in Ohio's well record search, or see how to find it.
Well depths: US Groundwater Well Database
Here's what we know about radon and PFAS in Geauga County.
Geauga County is in the EPA's middle radon zone. An indoor air test is cheap and tells you whether to look at your water. Radon guide
Between 2023 and 2025 the EPA had 3 town water systems in Geauga County test for PFAS. None found any. No well in Geauga County has public PFAS results, so the town systems are the best clue to what's in the groundwater nearby. PFAS guide
Radon zones: EPA Map of Radon Zones. PFAS: EPA tests of town water systems, 2023 to 2025
Questions people ask about well water in Geauga County
Is well water in Geauga County safe to drink?
3 of 21 wells tested in Geauga County had arsenic over the limit, about 1 in 7. Across Ohio it's about 2 in 10. That's a bigger share than in 7 of the 13 other Ohio counties with 10 or more tested wells. So test your own well for arsenic before you count on it.
Where can I get my well tested in Geauga County?
Use a lab Ohio has certified for drinking water. Ohio's list is linked above, in the box about testing. Ask for bacteria, nitrate and arsenic, the tests that matter most in Geauga County.
How deep are wells in Geauga County?
Half the household wells here are shallower than 102 feet. Typical household wells here go deeper than in 65 of the 87 other Ohio counties with enough drilling records.
How does Geauga County compare with the counties around it?
For manganese, the share of tested wells over the limit: Portage, the one neighbor with data, came in higher than Geauga County, at 33% against 4%. Groundwater doesn't stop at county lines, so Portage's 33% is worth knowing about if you live near it.
How often should I test my well in Geauga County?
In Geauga County, 7 of 21 tested wells had coliform bacteria, so the CDC's advice matters here: test for bacteria and nitrate every year, and right away after a flood, a repair, or any change in taste or smell.
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Where the Geauga County numbers come from
- People on wells: 76,987 in Geauga County, from EPA estimates built on the 2020 Census (Murray et al.).
- Lab tests: 243 well water samples from 26 wells in the Water Quality Portal, run by the USGS and EPA, 2001 to 2016.
- Well depths: 14,686 Ohio drilling records for Geauga County, gathered in the US Groundwater Well Database (Lin and others, 2024).
- Neighboring counties: the 6 counties that share a border with Geauga County, from the Census Bureau's county adjacency file.
- PFAS: EPA tests of 3 town water systems in Geauga County under the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, 2023 to 2025.
- Radon: Geauga County is zone 2 on the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
- State programs and links: Department of Health, checked November 1, 2026.