Manganese is widespread in Portage County wells.
1 widespread, 1 rare out of 2 health checks.
From 12 wells tested in Portage County since 2001; your own well needs its own test. How to read this
Not charted, because fewer than 10 wells were tested: arsenic (5), lead (5).
Rare: under 5%Worth checking: 5 to 15%Widespread: 15%+
Lab results: Water Quality Portal (USGS and EPA)
Who drinks from a well here
1 in 2 people 71,654 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 Portage County compares with Ohio and the counties around it.
Each result puts Portage County next to the 6 counties that border it, on the chart's 0 to 50% scale.
This one is widespread in Portage County wells.
Manganese4 of 12 wells over
Too few tested to show: Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Summit, Trumbull.
This one is rare in Portage County.
Too few Portage County wells were tested for these 2.
Arsenic5 wells tested
Lead5 wells tested
Every well needs a bacteria test every year.
No bacteria tests from Portage County wells are in the public data. Test every year anyway.
Iron reached staining levels in 9 of 12 tested wells, and it isn't a health risk.
Iron stains9 of 12 wells had it
Too few tested to show: Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Summit, Trumbull.
Most of the 12 wells tested in Portage County were last tested before 2010.
An old result shows the water as it was then, so treat these 12 wells as a starting point and test your own.
Most Portage 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 4 things to check in Portage County.
- Bacteria
- Nitrate
- Manganese
- 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 91 feet.
That comes from 16,619 household wells in Ohio's drilling records. Most wells of every kind here are 67 to 123 feet deep. Wells as deep as Portage 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 52 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 Portage County.
Portage 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 6 town water systems in Portage County test for PFAS. 1 found some PFAS, all below the new limits. No well in Portage 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 Portage County
Is well water in Portage County safe to drink?
4 of 12 wells tested in Portage County had manganese over the limit, about 1 in 3. Across Ohio it's about 2 in 10. That's a bigger share than in 12 of the 14 other Ohio counties with 10 or more tested wells. So test your own well for manganese before you count on it.
Where can I get my well tested in Portage 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, manganese and arsenic, the tests that matter most in Portage County.
How deep are wells in Portage County?
Half the household wells here are shallower than 91 feet. Typical household wells here go deeper than in 52 of the 87 other Ohio counties with enough drilling records.
How does Portage County compare with the counties around it?
For manganese, the share of tested wells over the limit: 1 of the 2 neighboring counties with data had a higher share than Portage County, at 33%. Stark had the most, at 40%. Groundwater doesn't stop at county lines, so Stark's 40% is worth knowing about if you live near it.
How often should I test my well in Portage County?
Portage County has no public bacteria results for wells, so follow the CDC's advice: 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 Portage County numbers come from
- People on wells: 71,654 in Portage County, from EPA estimates built on the 2020 Census (Murray et al.).
- Lab tests: 100 well water samples from 12 wells in the Water Quality Portal, run by the USGS and EPA, 2001 to 2014.
- Well depths: 16,619 Ohio drilling records for Portage County, gathered in the US Groundwater Well Database (Lin and others, 2024).
- Neighboring counties: the 6 counties that share a border with Portage County, from the Census Bureau's county adjacency file.
- PFAS: EPA tests of 6 town water systems in Portage County under the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, 2023 to 2025.
- Radon: Portage County is zone 2 on the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
- State programs and links: Department of Health, checked November 1, 2026.