How it started

Water Transport was founded in 1977 by Michael Kuester, a lifelong Ohio Valley resident and 1974 Steubenville High School graduate. He saw rural accounts that needed bulk water and bought a milk truck, then ran it with stainless tanks and dairy sanitation instead of a rusty steel pot.

That habit of treating water like food is still how the company talks about its work. Potable means fit to drink, and a potable load is not mixed with a process haul.

Standards, bottled water, and energy

In the early 1980s he helped the Ohio Department of Health shape what became the Private Water Systems Rules. In 1984 the company entered bottled water and built the private-label route that still runs. In 2010 the energy division opened for Utica work sitting in the same counties.

What we do today

Three lines run from one dispatch. Residential water covers cistern fills, pool fills, and bottled routes. Commercial water covers potable and freshwater bulk, dust control, and emergency hauling. Oilfield services covers frac water and hydrotesting.

The bottled line is private label, with purified and distilled water, coolers, Flojet systems, and crocks. See Bottled Water & Coolers. Whole truckloads of purified and distilled water are ordered separately by tanker.

The yard and the fleet

The yard holds navy stainless-steel tankers, a red Energy Services tanker, a white Mack tanker, and the boxed truck that runs the bottled route. Each is matched to a kind of work, which is why dispatch asks what the water is for before it picks a truck.

Bulk loads come from the municipal station in Wintersville. Bottled water is a separate route with its own truck. Pool and cistern work is seasonal, so spring and early summer book first. Emergency drops run during the week when a truck is available, and after-hours messages are returned as soon as someone can put a truck on the road.

How dispatch works

Calls come to one desk in Hopedale. Tell dispatch the use, the volume, the address, and the access: gates, grade, overhead lines, and where a truck can stand. Dispatch picks the unit and schedules the delivery, or places the address on a bottled route. A quote request through the website gets a call back.

Where we are

The office is at 100 Sammi Drive in Hopedale, about 18 miles west of Steubenville on State Route 22. The yard is in Harrison County. Potable bulk is loaded in Wintersville from Jefferson County Water & Sewer.

Deliveries run across Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. See the service areas.