Water system
Gallipolis
EPA ID OH2700112 · Gallia County · 7,134 people served
Gallipolis treats its own water from Groundwater wells (6 wells).
The system's record
- Active wells
- 6
- Serves
- 7,134 people · Gallia County
- EPA ID
- OH2700112
About this area's water
Did you know
- 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
History6
- 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
Treatment & pressure
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
What it costs
$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…
Water quality & impurities
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.
Projects & plans9
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
Supply stress
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
Sewers
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.
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 2 ZIP codes
- 45631 · Green Township and Gallipolis52% of residents
- 45614 · Springfield Township and Bidwell14% 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
Gallipolis does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Gallipolis.
What the records show about Gallipolis
Who runs it
EPA's record says Gallipolis has 2,964 service connections and serves 7,134 people.
EPA classes it as a community water system, one that serves the same residents all year.
Its office telephone on EPA's record is 740-446-0613.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Gallipolis: aeration, corrosion control, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, fluoridation, lime softening, and sand or media filtration.
The list is what each system registered with EPA for treatment plants EPA still shows as active, and it can lag a plant upgrade.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) treatment table (EPA Envirofacts, pulled September 2026).
Violations
EPA's record shows no health-based violations for Gallipolis since 2015.
EPA logs no violations of any kind for Gallipolis since 2020.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) violation records: health-based violations with compliance periods beginning in 2015 or later, all violations from 2020 or later (EPA Envirofacts, pulled September 2026).
Lead and copper at the tap
In the sampling period ending December 2024, the 90th-percentile lead result at Gallipolis was 2.3 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027.
EPA has 4 sampling periods on file for Gallipolis since 2016, the first ending in 2016; no period was above 10 ppb.
Every water system has to inventory its service lines, the pipes from the main to each building. In the inventory Gallipolis sent EPA, 3,660 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 34 |
| Unknown material | 2,869 |
| Not lead | 757 |
| All lines | 3,660 |
Systems sample taps in the homes most likely to have lead pipes or solder. The 90th-percentile result is the level nine in ten of the sampled homes were at or below. Lead comes mostly from service lines and house plumbing, not the source water, so a low result for the system does not clear an old house.
EPA's dashboard status for this inventory: reported all required service line types.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) lead and copper 90th-percentile results (EPA Envirofacts), sampling periods ending 2016 or later; EPA's service line inventory dashboard, Ohio's 2026 Q2 submission.
PFAS
EPA's fifth national round of testing (UCMR 5) took 2 samples of the water entering the pipes of Gallipolis in 2025 to 2026 and measured 29 PFAS.
The highest PFOA or PFOS result, 7.2 ng/L, is at or above the federal limit of 4 ng/L that EPA set in 2024. Systems have until 2029 to comply, and in May 2026 EPA proposed letting systems apply for two more years. One sample over the limit is not a violation: compliance is judged on a running annual average.
The highest PFAS result was PFOA 7.2 ng/L.
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Gallipolis (latest sample April 2021). The highest result was PFOA at 6.6 ppt (ppt is the same unit as ng/L), against Ohio's action level of 70 ppt. Those action levels are the ones Ohio EPA used for the survey; the 2024 federal limit for PFOA and PFOS is 4 ng/L.
| Compound | Highest result | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| PFOA | 7.2 ng/L | 4 ng/L |
| PFOS | not detected | 4 ng/L |
PFAS are the 'forever chemicals' from firefighting foam, plating shops and non-stick coatings. Results are for water leaving the plant, not your tap.
Source: EPA UCMR 5 occurrence data (final release, August 2026); Ohio EPA statewide PFAS sampling, 2019 to 2021, and its sampling status map.
Disinfection byproducts
Chlorine that disinfects water also reacts with organic matter to form byproducts. Two groups have federal limits: total trihalomethanes (TTHM, 80 µg/L) and five haloacetic acids (HAA5, 60 µg/L), judged on running yearly averages at each sampling site.
For TTHM, the average of Gallipolis's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 40.1 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 40.6 µg/L and the highest single sample was 47.2 µg/L, from 15 samples taken from 2012 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 9.3 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 9.3 µg/L and the highest single sample was 10.2 µg/L, from 15 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 40.1 µg/L (2019) | 40.6 µg/L | 47.2 µg/L | 15 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 9.3 µg/L | 9.3 µg/L | 10.2 µg/L | 15 |
A yearly average of 0 means nothing was detected in that year's samples. EPA's file stops at 2019; Ohio EPA's Drinking Water Watch has newer results.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, distribution-system samples (non-detects counted as zero).
Nitrate, arsenic and radioactivity
Nitrate: the highest of 8 samples was 1.56 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2016; in 2019, the last year sampled, the highest was 1.38 mg/L. No sample was over the limit of 10 mg/L. Nitrate above 10 is unsafe for infants.
Arsenic was not detected in 2 samples (limit 10 µg/L).
| Contaminant | Samples | Highest result | Limit | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 8 | 1.56 mg/L | 10 mg/L | 0 |
| Arsenic | 2 | not detected | 10 µg/L | 0 |
Measured in finished water: at the plant's entry points and in the distribution system; raw well and intake samples are left out. Non-detects count as zero.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Solvents and fuels
EPA's file holds results for all six solvent and fuel compounds it checked. Benzene, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, and vinyl chloride were not detected in 2 samples each.
| Compound | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benzene | 5 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 5 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| 1,2-dichloroethane | 5 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Trichloroethylene (TCE) | 5 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) | 5 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Vinyl chloride | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
"Not detected" means the lab's result was below what its method can measure, not that the compound is absent. Non-detects count as zero in the highest-result column.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Farm chemicals and metals
EPA's file holds results for 8 of the nine herbicides and metals it checked. Detected: barium in 2 of 2 samples, highest 25.8 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: atrazine in 3 samples, alachlor in 3 samples, chromium in 2 samples, cadmium in 2 samples, mercury in 2 samples, selenium in 2 samples, thallium in 2 samples.
| Substance | Kind | Limit | Samples | Detected in | Highest result | Samples over limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrazine | Farm chemical | 3 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 3 | 0 of 3 | not detected | 0 |
| Chromium | Metal | 100 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Cadmium | Metal | 5 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Barium | Metal | 2,000 µg/L | 2 | 2 of 2 | 25.8 µg/L | 0 |
| Mercury | Metal | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Selenium | Metal | 50 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
| Thallium | Metal | 2 µg/L | 2 | 0 of 2 | not detected | 0 |
Non-detects count as zero in the highest-result column.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, finished water.
Bacteria in the pipes
From 2012 to 2019, 0 of 962 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Gallipolis tested positive (0%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 112 did.
A positive coliform test is a warning sign, not a violation by itself. E. coli is a sign that human or animal waste may have reached the water. Coliform counts are routine samples only; E. coli counts include repeat samples.
Source: EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, distribution-system presence/absence tests for total coliform and E. coli.
Fluoride
The Ohio Department of Health's report to the CDC (My Water's Fluoride) says Gallipolis adjusts the fluoride level to the recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
EPA's treatment table lists fluoridation among the steps at Gallipolis.
Measured fluoride: 0.93 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2017 (in the range dentists aim for); samples ran from 0.93 to 0.97 mg/L across 2 samples in 2012 to 2019.
The recommended level for preventing tooth decay is 0.7 mg/L; the federal limit is 4 mg/L. The treatment list is what each system registered with EPA and can lag a plant upgrade.
Source: CDC My Water's Fluoride (fluoridation status as reported by the Ohio Department of Health, fetched September 2026); EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) treatment table; EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019, entry-point fluoride samples.
Lithium
Lithium was not detected in 2 UCMR 5 samples at Gallipolis, last sampled in 2026 (the method reports from 9 µg/L).
Lithium is not regulated. EPA's draft health reference level is 10 µg/L, and it occurs naturally in deep groundwater, so well systems in the northwest run highest.
Source: EPA UCMR 5 occurrence data (final release, August 2026), samples from 2023 to 2025.
How well the service area is mapped
EPA estimated the service area of Gallipolis with a computer model rather than drawing it from the utility's map, so its edges are approximate.
Counting the people who live in the ZIP codes it overlaps, this atlas estimates 8,085 residents are inside the boundary, 113% of the 7,134 people Gallipolis reports serving.
The resident count is an estimate from 2020 Census ZIP-code populations, not a count of customers.
Source: EPA Service Area Boundaries; resident estimate by this atlas from ZIP-code overlap.
Photograph
On the map
Show this system's territory on the map — 2 ZIP codes 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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH2700112 (EPA ECHO).
Notable facts: cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com
History: cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com
Planned work: cityofgallipolis.com
Water pressure: cityofgallipolis.com
Capital projects: cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com
Rates: cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com
Sewers: cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com
Treatment: cityofgallipolis.com
Supply stress: cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com, cityofgallipolis.com
