Gallipolis

• Gallipolis used to drink the Ohio River. The 1895 waterworks on Mill Creek Road took river water, and only later switched to wells — retiring at 2.2 million gallons a day on three wells when the current plant opened in…
• The city's water was so cheap that Ohio effectively penalized it for it: the 2023 rate ordinance states outright that Gallipolis did not qualify for state loan principal forgiveness because it had let rates stay too…
• Gallipolis is a city that is legally a village — every ordinance and audit is filed under 'Village of the City of Gallipolis' — and it is run by a five-member Commission with an appointed Village Manager.
• The plant softens water in two deep concrete basins with lime, then pushes it out through four pumps sized 1, 1, 2 and 2 million gallons a day from a clearwell holding 0.9 million.
• The link the city labels '2026 Water Quality Report' on its own water treatment page actually downloads its 2025 cash-basis financial statement — and the ohioruralwater.org address its public water system page sends…

Source: cityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.com

• 1895The Gallipolis waterworks was established, with a plant on Mill Creek Road drawing from the Ohio River.
• 1895-1981The Mill Creek Road plant was renovated several times and the supply shifted off the Ohio River and onto wells; at retirement it was rated 2.2 million gallons per day, pumping from three wells.
• 1981The James A. Northup Water Treatment Plant started operation in November 1981 at 2020 Chestnut Street, with a gross capacity of 4.0 MGD and five wells provided for use and reserve.
• 1987The wastewater treatment plant received its last major upgrade, a $5.7 million expansion — the last grant/loan financing option the EPA offered the city.
• 2003An odor reduction project at the Water Pollution Control Facility was completed in spring 2003 at a cost of $350,000.
• 2023Ordinance O2023-07 (passed 20 February 2023) raised water rates 13.5% after a four-year freeze, explicitly to reach 1% of median income so the city could qualify for state funding and loan principal…

Source: cityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.com

How it is treated

James A. Northup Water Treatment Plant, 2020 Chestnut Street; gross design capacity 4.0 MGD against an average flow of about 800,000 gallons per day. Raw water is groundwater — the city's plant page says five wells are provided for use and reserve, while the state public water system record for…

Source: cityofgallipolis.com

Water pressure

Not published. The city documents its high-service pumping in detail — four pumps rated 1.0, 1.0, 2.0 and 2.0 MGD drawing from a 0.9-million-gallon clearwell — but publishes no…

Source: cityofgallipolis.com

$4.26 per 1,000 gallons

Typical household bill about $34 a month for water.

From Ordinance O2023-07, passed 20 February 2023 and effective with the March 2023 billing. Water is metered and billed per hundred gallons, read to the nearest hundred. Inside…

Source: cityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.com

EPA compliance record

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 2.3 ppb in 2024 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

Recent and current work

• Water Line Replacement Phase 1 · $7.3 million · 2025 · under construction
  Contract to CJ Hughes Construction Co., Inc., not to exceed $7,261,146, authorized 10 April 2025 by emergency Ordinance O2025-19, contingent on Ohio EPA Water…
• Media replacement of two gravity filter cells at the water treatment plant · 2026 · under construction
  Advertised under Resolution R2025-09 (21 October 2025), bids opened 21 April 2026, and awarded to FeeCorp Corporation of Canal Winchester by Ordinance O2026-09…
• Wastewater treatment plant expansion · $5.7 million · 1987 · completed
  The plant's last major upgrade, and per the city the last grant/loan financing option the EPA made available to it.
• Water Pollution Control Facility odor reduction project · $350,000 · 2003 · completed
  Completed spring 2003.
• OPWC Spruce Street water and sewer line improvements · 2010 · completed
  Zero-interest Ohio Public Works Commission loan, draws begun 2010, repaid jointly from the Water and Sewer enterprise funds; $60,784 still outstanding at the…
• Water Pollution Control Facility upgrades and wastewater headworks engineering · 2013 · completed
  Financed by a 2013 OPWC loan plus two 2013 OWDA loans at 1.00%; $884,154 and $3,777,494 respectively remained outstanding at the end of 2025, the larger…
• Belmont Drive sanitary sewer improvements · 2024 · completed
  Bids accepted and rejected by Ordinance O2024-19, 16 July 2024. Cost not published on the ordinance index.
• Water meter replacement at Holzer Hospital · 2024 · completed
  Proposal accepted by Ordinance O2024-14, 21 May 2024. Cost not published.

Source: cityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.com

Planned or needed

• Remaining phases of the water line replacement program · $8 million · 2028 · planned
  The OWDA Water Line Replacement Loan 11267 anticipates a total of $7,972,986 to be received by 2028 for planning, design and construction of replacement water…

Source: cityofgallipolis.com

Not documented as quantity-stressed. Five to six wells feed a plant designed for 4.0 MGD that averages roughly 800,000 gallons a day — about a fifth of capacity — and the wells sit in the Ohio River valley, where recharge is generally ample. What actually strains Gallipolis is money and old pipe rather than hydrology, and the city said…

Source: cityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.com

Sanitary

City-operated Water Pollution Control Facility at 1547 Chatham Avenue, treating sanitary sewer flow and discharging to the Ohio River. Average flow 1.0 MGD, design flow 1.6 MGD, peak flow 5.7 MGD. Process: influent pumping, grit removal, primary sedimentation, oxidation towers for secondary treatment, final sedimentation, then…

Storm

Not documented. The city publishes no stormwater utility, storm sewer program or combined sewer overflow information; the Water Pollution Control Facility material describes sanitary sewer flows only.

Source: cityofgallipolis.comcityofgallipolis.com

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