The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District
On July 9, 1932 the District officially began providing water to Youngstown and Niles.
The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District is a political subdivision of the State of Ohio established under the authority of the Sanitary Act of Ohio and governed by the Ohio Revised Code Chapter 6115, for the purpose of providing a public water supply. The District is overseen by the Trumbull and Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas and a Board of Directors that are appointed by the member cities.
The District's Meander Creek Reservoir is seven miles long, covers 2,010 acres with 40 miles of shoreline, and has a capacity, at the top of the spillway of 10 billion gallons of water. An inflatable rubber bladder at the top of the spillway allows for 1 billion gallons of additional water storage. The watershed area is 86.5 square miles. The dam is 50 feet high, 3,550 feet long, with 260 feet of spillway. Two higher elevated emergency spillways were added across the dam to the west of the original spillway in the early 1990's.
The District owned land includes 5,500 acres enclosed by 35 miles of fence. The land is reforested with 4 million evergreens and serves as an unofficial fish and game refuge with no public access permitted.
The District furnishes water to the two member cities of Youngstown and Niles, and to the Village of McDonald as agent of the member cities. These entities then supply water to the surrounding metropolitan area including Girard, Canfield, Mineral Ridge, and the Village of Lordstown, Craig Beach as well as portions of ten townships in Trumbull and Mahoning County. The population now served is estimated at 220,000.
During the last fiscal year, 2015-2016, the District pumped to the two member cities and McDonald a total of 7441.162 million gallons (M.G.) of water for an average of 20.331 million gallons daily (M.G.D.). The design capacity of the water plant is 60 M.G.D. The highest year on record for the production of water was 1978-1979 when the daily average water usage was 40.48 M.G.D.
The water is delivered to Youngstown by two 36" steel force mains each 28,000 feet long, to a 30 M.G. storage reservoir owned by the District and one 48" concrete main 14,000 feet long to Youngstown's Webb Road Booster Pump Station. From the 30 M.G. reservoir two 42" steel feeder mains continue into the center of the city. Niles is supplied water by two 20" cast iron mains, one 10,000 feet long and the other 15,000 feet long, and one 24" ductile iron main 14,000 feet long. The District also has a 1.5 M.G. standpipe in Niles. The Village of McDonald is supplied water off of Youngstown's 48" line at two different locations.