{
  "type": "water",
  "pwsid": "OH4600112",
  "name": "Bellefontaine City",
  "county": "Logan",
  "population": 13249,
  "producer": true,
  "source_class": "groundwater",
  "label": "local wells (shallow carbonate aquifer)",
  "bodies": [],
  "intakes": [],
  "wells": 5,
  "aquifer": "local carbonate bedrock aquifer",
  "notes": "Wells located west of Lewis Ratleff Park draw from a shallow carbonate bedrock aquifer (water table typically <30 ft deep); treated at plant built 1998.",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.ci.bellefontaine.oh.us/page/sourcewater"
  ],
  "chain": [
    "OH4600112"
  ],
  "plants": [
    {
      "n": "Bellefontaine Water Treatment Plant",
      "la": 40.3606,
      "lo": -83.7644,
      "pt": "approximate",
      "wb": "local carbonate bedrock aquifer",
      "src": "local wells (shallow carbonate aquifer)",
      "cls": "groundwater",
      "in": [
        {
          "n": "Bellefontaine well field",
          "wb": "Local carbonate (limestone) bedrock aquifer, relatively shallow (generally less than 30 ft to water) beneath flat terrain that favors…",
          "role": "primary",
          "src": "All 5 active wells draw from a shallow carbonate bedrock aquifer on the west side of the city, near Lewis Ratleff Park; treatment plant (in service since 1998) is on the city's west side. (5 wells)",
          "la": 40.3606,
          "lo": -83.7644,
          "pt": "approximate",
          "wells": [
            "Well 6",
            "Well W",
            "Well W",
            "Well W",
            "Well W"
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "facts": {
    "hist": [
      [
        "1820",
        "Bellefontaine platted by European American settlers; incorporated by the legislature in 1835. The city's bicentennial logo, used on its own water quality report, reads 'Celebrating 200 Years…"
      ],
      [
        "1891",
        "Court Avenue paved in Portland cement concrete using George Bartholomew's process — the first concrete street in the United States. It still carries its original pavement."
      ],
      [
        "1990",
        "Ohio EPA sampling of Bellefontaine's raw and treated water between 1990 and 1998 found detectable levels of volatile organic compounds, a finding that still drives the wellfield's 'highly…"
      ],
      [
        "1998",
        "The city's current water treatment plant was completed and put into service. No organic compounds have been detected in samples collected since; the plant operates a treatment system specifically to…"
      ],
      [
        "2024",
        "City held an unconditioned license to operate the water system and participated in rounds 1 and 2 of the federal UCMR 5 unregulated contaminant monitoring."
      ]
    ],
    "treat": "Municipal wells in the city's West wellfield draw from a shallow carbonate bedrock aquifer (depth to water usually less than 30 feet), west of Lewis Ratleff Park. Water is treated at the plant placed in service in 1998, which includes a treatment system operated specifically to keep volatile…",
    "press": "Not published. No system pressure figure, pressure-zone map, or hydraulic model appears in the CCR, the codified ordinances, or any city page; the city publishes no engineering…",
    "rate": {
      "g": 3.1,
      "n": "Codified Ordinance 923.01(a), rate schedule adopted by Ord. 25-63 (passed 9-23-25). Effective January 1, 2026: a $16.05 monthly operations/administrative fee plus $3.10 per 1,000…",
      "m": 28.45
    },
    "imp": [
      [
        "Copper (90th percentile)",
        "0.822",
        "mg/L",
        "1.3 (action…",
        "2024",
        "1 of 30 samples exceeded the 1.3 mg/L copper action level. At 63% of the AL this is the most elevated regulated result…"
      ],
      [
        "Barium",
        "0.155",
        "mg/L",
        "2",
        "2024",
        "Naturally occurring in the carbonate aquifer; about 8% of the MCL. No violation."
      ],
      [
        "Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM)",
        "0.047",
        "mg/L",
        "0.080",
        "2024",
        "47 ppb against an 80 ppb MCL; range 40-60 ppb. Disinfection byproduct, no violation, but the highest-percentage-of-MCL…"
      ],
      [
        "Fluoride",
        "0.86",
        "mg/L",
        "4",
        "2024",
        "Range 0.79-1.3 mg/L. Naturally occurring plus additive for dental health; close to the 0.7 ppm optimum. No violation."
      ],
      [
        "Chlorine",
        "0.8",
        "mg/L",
        "4 (MRDL)",
        "2024",
        "Range 0.3-1.6 mg/L. Water additive used to control microbes."
      ],
      [
        "Gross alpha (excluding radon and…",
        "3",
        "pCi/L",
        "15",
        "2021",
        "Range 3-3 pCi/L. Erosion of natural deposits; monitored less than annually, so the most recent sample year is 2021. No…"
      ],
      [
        "Lead (90th percentile)",
        "0.003",
        "mg/L",
        "0.015 (action…",
        "2024",
        "3 ppb. 0 of 30 samples exceeded the 15 ppb action level; two locations were resampled and returned within the action…"
      ],
      [
        "Nitrate",
        "0.148",
        "mg/L",
        "10",
        "2024",
        "About 1.5% of the MCL — remarkably low for an Ohio agricultural county, and in sharp contrast to the Trenton and…"
      ],
      [
        "Haloacetic Acids (HAA5)",
        "0.005",
        "mg/L",
        "0.060",
        "2024",
        "5 ppb; range ND-6 ppb. The CCR's MCL cell for HAA5 misprints as 'N/D'; the federal MCL is 0.060 mg/L. No violation."
      ],
      [
        "Mercury",
        "ND",
        "mg/L",
        "0.002",
        "2024",
        "Not detected at or above the reporting limit."
      ]
    ],
    "proj": [],
    "plan": [
      [
        "Multi-year water rate escalation to fund capital improvement development",
        null,
        "2026",
        "planned",
        "Ord. 25-63 (passed 9-23-25) sets three consecutive annual increases through 2028. Codified Ordinance 923.01 states the rates exist 'for the purpose of…"
      ]
    ],
    "stress": "Ohio EPA's source water assessment rates the aquifer supplying Bellefontaine's West wellfield as HIGHLY susceptible to contamination, for four stated reasons: water quality results indicate impacts of volatile organic compounds; the carbonate aquifer has a shallow depth to water, in most areas less than 30 feet below ground; the…",
    "sew": {
      "s": "City-owned and operated. The Wastewater Treatment Plant sits on the southwest side of town at 610 South Troy Road and consists of two fine screens, two oxidation ditches, three secondary clarifiers, and UV disinfection; biosolids handling uses three aerated waste activated sludge holding tanks, four drying beds, and an Ashbrook belt…",
      "st": "The city operates a formal storm drainage utility under Codified Ordinances Chapter 927 (Storm Water Drainage System), financed by user fees based on Equivalent Residential Units — a property's impervious area measured against the average single-family…"
    },
    "fun": [
      "Bellefontaine is nicknamed 'The Peak of Ohio' because Campbell Hill, the highest point in the state, lies inside the city limits — yet Ohio EPA's susceptibility analysis for the city's wellfield blames the flat…",
      "In 1891 George Bartholomew's Portland cement process paved Court Avenue in Bellefontaine, the first concrete street in the United States; it has held its original pavement for more than a century.",
      "The city's drinking water comes from a carbonate aquifer whose water table sits less than 30 feet below the surface in most places — shallow enough that Ohio EPA counts the depth itself as a susceptibility factor.",
      "Volatile organic compounds turned up in Bellefontaine's raw and treated water between 1990 and 1998; none have been detected since the new plant opened in 1998, which still runs a treatment step dedicated to keeping…",
      "Honda is Bellefontaine's largest modern employer, with area manufacturing at Marysville, East Liberty and Troy."
    ],
    "src": {
      "history": [
        "https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/5252/COB/5831744/2024_CCR_Final.pdf",
        "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellefontaine,_Ohio"
      ],
      "treatment": [
        "https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/5252/COB/5831744/2024_CCR_Final.pdf",
        "https://www.ci.bellefontaine.oh.us/page/sourcewater"
      ],
      "pressure": [
        "https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/5252/COB/5831744/2024_CCR_Final.pdf",
        "https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/bellefontaine/latest/bellefontaine_oh/0-0-0-14690"
      ],
      "rates": [
        "https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/bellefontaine/latest/bellefontaine_oh/0-0-0-14690"
      ],
      "impurities": [
        "https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/5252/COB/5831744/2024_CCR_Final.pdf"
      ],
      "planned": [
        "https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/bellefontaine/latest/bellefontaine_oh/0-0-0-14690"
      ],
      "water_stress": [
        "https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/5252/COB/5831744/2024_CCR_Final.pdf"
      ],
      "sewer": [
        "https://www.ci.bellefontaine.oh.us/page/wastewater-department",
        "https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/bellefontaine/latest/bellefontaine_oh/0-0-0-15752"
      ],
      "fun_facts": [
        "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellefontaine,_Ohio",
        "https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/5252/COB/5831744/2024_CCR_Final.pdf",
        "https://www.ci.bellefontaine.oh.us/page/wastewater-department"
      ]
    }
  },
  "zips_served": [
    {
      "zip": "43311",
      "share": 0.708,
      "dominant": true
    }
  ],
  "photo": {
    "url": "/photos/OH4600112.jpg",
    "caption": "Logan County Courthouse in downtown Bellefontaine, Ohio",
    "credit": "Nheyob",
    "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  "url": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH4600112/",
  "api": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/water/OH4600112.json",
  "generated": "2026-09-16",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0 for the compilation; each source keeps its own terms",
  "cite": "Cracked Buckeye (Open Shower Co), \"Bellefontaine City · OH4600112\", https://crackedbuckeye.com/water/OH4600112/, built 2026-09-16, accessed [date].",
  "schema": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/api/schema.json"
}