Nelsonville

• Nelsonville sits along the Hocking River, with Monday Creek running through the eastern part of town.
• Canal Street runs over the former route of the historic Hocking Canal.
• During Morgan's Raid in July 1863, Confederate cavalry burned ten wooden canal boats at Nelsonville but failed to destroy a covered bridge over the canal — townspeople put out the fire once the raiders rode off.
• In 1888 Nelsonville became the first city in the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains to light its streets electrically citywide.
• The city sells water by the gallon at City Hall — bulk water is $0.013 per gallon — and its water system also supplies the neighboring Village of Buchtel.

Source: en.wikipedia.orgcityofnelsonville.comcityofnelsonville.com

• 1814Area first settled by Daniel Nelson, decades before any municipal waterworks existed.
• 1838Nelsonville incorporated, with Charles Cable as its first mayor.
• 1863During Morgan's Raid in July 1863, Confederate cavalry paused in Nelsonville and burned ten wooden canal boats on the Hocking Canal.
• 1888Nelsonville became the first city in the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains to have citywide electric street lights.
• 2022Ohio EPA issued a preliminary finding of no significant impact for Regional Collection System Improvements Phase 3, a $2.7 million fully forgivable Water Pollution Control Loan Fund award; a new…
• 2024The city misreported disinfection by-product results. Its 2025 CCR corrects the 2024 TTHM figure to 107.0 ppb with a range of 46.5-128 ppb (against an 80 ppb MCL), and the 2024 HAA5 figure to 13.2…

Source: en.wikipedia.orgcityofnelsonville.comcityofnelsonville.com

How it is treated

Three wells near the Hocking River, north of the water treatment plant, drawing from the Hocking River Aquifer. The CCR describes treatment as ion exchange — passing water through a resin that removes charged inorganic contaminants such as arsenic, chromium, nitrate, radium, uranium and excess…

Source: cityofnelsonville.com

Water pressure

not published — no distribution pressure figure appears in the city's CCR, rate documents or utility pages.

$18.15 per 1,000 gallons

Typical household bill about $73 a month for water.

City of Nelsonville rate memo signed by the city manager, water increase effective March 1, 2026: in town, $27.28 minimum covering the first 1,500 gallons, then $18.15 per 1,000…

Source: cityofnelsonville.comcityofnelsonville.com

Source: cityofnelsonville.com

EPA compliance record

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 1.6 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA health-based violations since 2015:

• 2025Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.104 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · known
• 2024Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.102 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · known
• 2022Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.086 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
• 2020Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.093 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
• 2019Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.086 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
• 2018Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.086 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
• 2016Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.087 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance
• 2015Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) · exceeded a maximum contaminant level · measured 0.083 MG/L (limit 0.08 MG/L) · returned to compliance

EPA's count of 15 includes 7 repeat quarterly violations of the problems listed.

17 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 7 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).

Recent and current work

• Regional Collection System Improvements Phase 3 (sanitary sewer) · $2.7 million · 2022 · under construction
  Ohio EPA Water Pollution Control Loan Fund loan CS390649-0021, fully eligible for principal forgiveness. Over 12,000 feet of new gravity sewer, 4,000 linear…
• New regional wastewater treatment plant, Elm Rock Road · 2022 · under construction
  Under construction as of Ohio EPA's May 2022 environmental assessment and funded through the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund; replaces the existing plant and…

Source: cityofnelsonville.com

Ohio EPA's source water assessment rates the aquifer supplying Nelsonville as highly susceptible to contamination, citing the lack of a protective clay or shale layer over the aquifer, a shallow aquifer depth of less than 10 feet below ground surface, significant potential contaminant sources inside the protection area, and man-made…

Source: cityofnelsonville.com

Sanitary

City of Nelsonville owns and operates the sanitary collection system and a wastewater treatment plant, serving roughly 1,700 customers inside the city and 300 outside it, plus regionalized connections from Murray City and Carbon Hill, with Buchtel's system acquired and Imperial, Doanville and Railroad Street being added (Ohio EPA, 2022).…

Storm

Separate storm sewers exist in at least part of the city: Ohio EPA's 2022 environmental assessment records that the sanitary sewer near Myers Street ran directly through a storm sewer catch basin, a direct pollution pathway to the Hocking River, which the…

Source: cityofnelsonville.comcityofnelsonville.com

Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.