Water system
Urbana City
EPA ID OH1101212 · Champaign County · 11,428 people served · owned by a local government
Urbana City treats its own water from local wells (sand and gravel outwash aquifer).
The system's record
- Active wells
- 5
- Serves
- 11,428 people · Champaign County
- EPA ID
- OH1101212
Urbana draws from multiple well fields (e.g. SR 29 West, Old Troy Pike) in a glacial sand-and-gravel outwash aquifer; no single named river-valley aquifer was documented, so kept as 'local wells'.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Urbana's tap water is naturally very hard - 315 to 350 mg/L, about 20 grains - and the city neither softens nor fluoridates it; the CCR simply tells residents to set their home softeners no higher than 16 grains.
- Some of Urbana's 87 miles of water main are over a hundred years old. The CCR is blunt about what patching them accomplishes: the water pressure just 'will find the next weakest point in the line.'
- The city produced 666,474,100 gallons of drinking water in 2025 from just five wells.
- Ohio EPA has found nitrate, tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene in Urbana's raw and treated water at levels of concern since 1991 - a documented manmade fingerprint on the aquifer that the city answers with granular…
- All three of Urbana's 2024-25 Ohio EPA citations were paperwork under the new lead service line rules - a late inventory and uncertified notifications - not lead in the water; zero of 30 tap samples exceeded the lead…
Source: urbanaohio.comurbanaohio.com
History6
- 1915Urbana's first sewage treatment plant built at the site of the present Water Reclamation Facility.
- 1954New 1.5 MGD wastewater treatment plant constructed.
- 1973Wastewater plant expanded with aeration tanks and aerobic digesters to 3 MGD.
- 1991Ohio EPA source-water study found nitrate, tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene in both raw and treated water at levels of concern - the documented start of a manmade influence on the aquifer that…
- 2013-2015New 4.5 MGD oxidation-ditch Water Reclamation Facility built (construction September 2013 to September 2015).
- 2015Phase 1 of the multiyear water main replacement completed: E. Court, E. Church and E. Ward Streets between Main St. and Jefferson Ave., plus Amherst and Wooddale Drive.
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Five operating wells in two well fields - SR 29 West and Old Troy Pike - drawing on the Mad River Buried Valley Aquifer and feeding two treatment plants that share the same high-yield aquifer, so finished-water chemistry stays stable year round. Disinfection is with sodium hypochlorite. A granular…
Source: urbanaohio.comurbanaohio.com
Water pressure
No psi figure is published. The system is described in terms of zones instead: two booster stations, in service since 2025, lift water from the low-pressure to the high-pressure…
Source: urbanaohio.comurbanaohio.com
What it costs
Not substantiated, so left empty rather than estimated. Urbana posts 'Water Rate and Fee Information' and 'Sewer Rate and Fee Information' only as downloads from its Utility…
Source: urbanaohio.com
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples over the action level; no individual results above the AL. | 5.5 ppb | 15 (AL) | 2025 |
| Copper (90th percentile) 0 of 30 samples over the action level. | 0.149 ppm | 1.3 (AL) | 2025 |
| Total chlorine Range 0.89 to 1.1 ppm; sodium hypochlorite. | 0.96 ppm | 4 (MRDL) | 2025 |
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) Range 1.5 to 5.2 ppb - very low, as expected for a groundwater system with little organic carbon. | 5.2 ppb | 80 | 2025 |
| Nitrate Range 1.77 to 2.45 ppm. Ohio EPA links elevated nitrate in this aquifer to manmade influence documented since 1991. | 2.45 ppm | 10 | 2025 |
| 1,1,1-Trichloroethane Range <0.08 to 0.1 ppb. Discharge from metal degreasing sites - the same industrial signature as the aquifer's PCE/TCE… | 0.05 ppb | 200 | 2025 |
| Gross alpha radioactivity Naturally occurring radiological decay; monitored less than annually. | 4.67 pCi/L | 15 | 2022 |
| Fluoride Range 0.19 to 0.27 ppm. Naturally occurring - the city does not fluoridate. | 0.27 ppm | 4 | 2023 |
| Barium Range 0.11 to 0.173 ppm; erosion of natural deposits. | 0.173 ppm | 2 | 2023 |
| Selenium Well below the MCL. | 3.6 ppb | 50 | 2023 |
Source: urbanaohio.com
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 5.5 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2024Lead and Copper Rule (lead) · treatment technique violation · returned to compliance
8 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 7 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
Projects & plans9
Recent and current work
- Phase 1 water main replacement · 2015 · completed
E. Court, E. Church and E. Ward Streets between Main St. and Jefferson Ave., plus Amherst and Wooddale Drive. No cost published. - Phase 2 water main replacement · unknown · completed
Scioto St., Ames, Finch and Crescent. The 2025 CCR states the phase is complete but gives no completion year and no cost; the earlier draft's '2025' is not… - System-wide water meter replacement · 2022 · completed
No cost published. - South High Street water line replacement · unknown · completed
Partial replacement from Miami St. to State Route 55. The CCR states it is complete but does not date it; the earlier draft's '2022' is not supported. No cost… - Two new booster stations · 2025 · completed
In service since 2025, moving water from the low to the high pressure zone on the east end. No cost published. - Service line inventory and customer notifications · 2025 · completed
Inventory submitted to Ohio EPA January 8, 2025 after missing the October 16, 2024 federal deadline; lead mapping complete and the inventory posted for 2026.… - West Court Bridge water main connection · 2026 · under construction
New water main connection carried on the West Court Bridge project, completing summer 2026. No cost published.
Source: urbanaohio.comurbanaohio.com
Planned or needed
- Grimes Area water line replacement · 2026-2027 · planned
Set to begin in 2026 and wrap up in 2027 per the 2025 CCR. No cost published. - Lead service line replacement plan (Get the Lead Out) · 2027 · planned
US EPA requires Urbana to submit its replacement plan by November 2027; the city is partnering with the Get the Lead Out program. No cost published.
Source: urbanaohio.comurbanaohio.com
Supply stress
Ohio EPA's source water assessment rates the aquifer supplying both the SR 29 West and Old Troy Pike well fields as HIGHLY susceptible to contamination, on four grounds: no protective clay layer over the aquifer, a shallow water table less than 30 feet below the surface, significant potential contaminant sources inside the protection…
Source: urbanaohio.com
Sewers
Sanitary
City of Urbana Water Reclamation Facility, an oxidation-ditch plant built September 2013 to September 2015 with an average design flow of 4.5 MGD and a peak flow of 9.25 MGD, discharging under an NPDES permit into the Mad River watershed. The site's history runs back to a 1915 plant, a 1.5 MGD plant in 1954, a 1973 expansion to 3 MGD…
Storm
Not published. No stormwater utility, storm sewer fee, or storm system description was found on the city's pages during this pass.
Source: urbanaohio.comurbanaohio.com
Sourcesverified
Compiled from the utility's own reports and public records, then independently re-checked against primary sources.
Main supplier in 1 ZIP code
Serves
Main water supplier in 1 ZIP code
- 43078 · Urbana55% of residents
Population-weighted resident shares; a ZIP code can have more than one system on record. Recomputed from each ZIP's own system list, not from the map's cached footprint.
Buys from · Sells to
Urbana City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Urbana City.
Photograph
On the map
Show this system's territory on the map — 1 ZIP code in all.
Sources
U.S. EPA SDWIS and Community Water System Service Area Boundaries (v3, 2026), Ohio EPA primacy data, 2020 census blocks: the system serving most residents, traced through purchases to the treating utility; Ohio EPA 2023 Sewer and Water Rate Survey (Ohio State, May 2025) for household bills; Ohio EPA DEFA loan awards since 2016 for the loans paragraph · EPA SDWIS · EPA service area boundaries · Ohio EPA drinking water · Ohio EPA rate survey
Urbana City's own pages: urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com
Notable facts: urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com
History: urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com
Water quality: urbanaohio.com
Planned work: urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com
Water pressure: urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com
Capital projects: urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com
Rates: urbanaohio.com
Sewers: urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com
Treatment: urbanaohio.com, urbanaohio.com
Supply stress: urbanaohio.com