Georgetown Village

• BCRWA exists because two separate citizen groups, one around Feesburg and one around Sardinia, merged so the new nonprofit could qualify for federal Farmers Home Administration loans.
• The plant uses lime softening rather than the coagulation-filtration typical of surface water plants, pushing pH to about 10.3 and then recarbonating it back down to about 9.5.
• Because most of Brown County sits on shale that yields only a few gallons a minute, the buried-valley Ohio River Aquifer - good for over 500 gpm - is the area's only significant groundwater source.
• In the 2023 UCMR 5 national monitoring round, none of the listed unregulated contaminants were detected in BCRWA's water; a 2020 state PFAS screen also came back clean.

• early 1970sCitizen groups in Feesburg and Sardinia, whose outlying areas still relied on wells and cisterns, merged to form BCRWA as a private nonprofit.
• early 1970sBCRWA organized as a nonprofit association specifically to qualify for Farmers Home Administration loans to build rural water lines.
• 1999BCRWA formed its Wellhead Protection Committee and adopted a Wellhead Protection Plan for the Ohio River Aquifer well field.
• 2020Sampled under Ohio's statewide PFAS initiative; six PFAS compounds tested and none detected in finished drinking water.
• 2023Participated in the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule round (UCMR 5); no UCMR 5 contaminants were detected.

How it is treated

13 wells (3-6 at a time, up to 450 gpm each) feed aeration, then lime softening in a clarifier to pH ~10.3 with alum, recarbonation back to pH ~9.5, four anthracite-over-sand filters, then chlorine (~1.0 mg/L) and fluoride into a 450,000-gallon clear well.

Water pressure

not published as psi; five 750-gpm high-service pumps and 13 elevated storage towers hold pressure across the rural distribution area

$11.00 per 1,000 gallons

2026 schedule: 5/8-inch residential minimum $28.00/month including 2,000 gallons; next 48,000 gallons $11.00 per 1,000; above 50,000 gallons $10.00.

EPA compliance record · Georgetown Village

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0.6 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

1 violation of any kind logged since 2020, 1 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).

EPA compliance record · Brown County Rural Water (treats the water)

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0.7 ppb in 2023 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

Ohio EPA rates this aquifer HIGH susceptibility to contamination: a thin protective clay layer, a water table less than 40 feet down, significant potential contaminant sources nearby, and periodic serious Ohio River flooding. It is the county's only significant aquifer, since Brown County shale yields little water.

Sanitary

Not documented. BCRWA is a drinking-water-only association; its materials describe no sanitary sewer service, and no source reviewed confirmed how its rural customers dispose of wastewater.

Storm

not documented in sources reviewed

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