Water system
Yellow Springs Village
EPA ID OH2903012 · Greene County · 3,761 people served · owned by a local government
Yellow Springs Village treats its own water from Groundwater wells (4 wells).
The system's record
- Active wells
- 4
- Serves
- 3,761 people · Greene County
- EPA ID
- OH2903012
About this area's water
Did you know
- The average village household pays about $94 a month for water and sewer combined - against about $66 in Fairborn, $38 in Xenia and $26 in Enon.
- Yellow Springs went from brown tap water to winning "best water" in statewide competitions twice, in 2023 and again in 2025.
- Treatment cut hardness from about 500 mg/L (30 grains per gallon) in 2016 to about 213 mg/L (12 grains) - which the USGS still classes as "very hard."
- Because the village rounds usage down to the nearest 1,000 gallons, a single-occupant household using about 1,000 gallons a month still averages roughly $54 on its bill.
- Debt service on the 2017 treatment plant - more than $440,000 a year for about 20 more years - eats roughly 30% of the water department's annual budget.
Source: ysnews.com
History6
- c.1928The municipal water system dates to roughly this era - in 2026 village officials describe more than four decades of deferred maintenance on "our 98-year-old municipal water system."
- c.1957The water treatment plant that the 2017 plant replaced was built; it was about 60 years old and deteriorating when replacement began, per then-Water Plant Superintendent Brad Ault.
- 2002-2009Water rates stayed nearly flat, moving only from about $3.15 to $3.45 per 1,000 gallons across most of the decade, deferring infrastructure investment.
- 2015Rate increases began in earnest with a roughly 30% jump, after leaders had weighed alternatives to building a new plant including buying wholesale water from Springfield or Xenia.
- 2017The new municipal water treatment plant opened at the end of Jacoby Road beside the village wellfield - more than twice the size of the old plant - financed with a $6.7 million loan the village is…
- 2023Council voted to raise sewer, electric and water rates through 2027; for water it authorized an 8% increase in each of those years, on the recommendation of consultant Courtney & Associates.
Source: ysnews.com
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Groundwater from four village wells along Jacoby Road is treated at the municipal plant at the end of Jacoby Road, next to the wellfield, which came online in 2017 and is more than twice the size of the plant it replaced. Sodium hydroxide is dosed for pH control at one of the four wells. EPA SDWIS…
Source: ysnews.comdata.epa.govdata.epa.gov
Water pressure
Not published.
What it costs
$18.04 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $94 a month for water.
$18.04 per 1,000 gallons in 2026, rising to $19.48 in 2027 under the 8%-per-year schedule Council adopted in 2023 for 2023-2027. Usage is rounded down to the nearest 1,000…
Source: ysnews.com
Water quality & impurities4
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead (90th percentile, sampling rounds) Five rounds reported zero; the highest was 0.0057 mg/L. All well below the action level. | 0 - 0.0057 mg/L | 0.015 mg/L… | most… |
| Hardness Roughly 12 grains per gallon, down from about 500 mg/L (30 grains) in 2016, but still classified "very hard" on the… | about 213 mg/L | not regulated | 2026 |
| Lead service line notices Non-health-based reporting violation that began July 2, 2025 and is recorded as resolved. | N/A N/A | N/A | 2025 |
| Yearly water quality report (inadequate) Administrative "other" violation open since January 15, 2019; not health-based. | N/A N/A | N/A | 2019 |
Source: data.epa.govdata.epa.govysnews.com
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 2.3 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.
1 violation of any kind logged since 2020: 1 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
Projects & plans4
Recent and current work
- New municipal water treatment plant, Jacoby Road · $6.7 million · 2017 · completed
Financed by a loan the village is still repaying at more than $440,000 a year with about 20 years left, roughly 30% of the water department's annual budget.
Source: ysnews.com
Planned or needed
- Force main replacement (2,900 ft of 16-inch ductile iron, over 60 years old) · $2 million · 2026 · proposed
Top-priority wastewater fix in the Wessler Engineering study; the pipe carries most of the village's wastewater to the Grinnell Road treatment plant, and a… - Bryan Lift Station pump replacement · $1.2 million · 2026 · proposed
A 30-year-old leaking pump at the station that handles 70% of village wastewater; average flow of 3.15 MGD is about 90% of its 3.74 MGD capacity. - Wastewater treatment plant rehabilitation (built 1964, upgraded 2009) · $5.5 million · 2026 · proposed
Third of three Wessler recommendations totaling $8.65 million, which the village hopes to fund through the Ohio EPA Water Pollution Control Loan Fund; if all…
Source: ysnews.com
Supply stress
Not source-limited - the village pumps groundwater - but financially and infrastructurally stressed. In 2025 the village treated 115.2 million gallons and billed for only 81.01 million, an unaccounted-for water rate of 28.19% (about 34 million gallons lost) against an EPA expectation of 14-16%; monthly loss started the year near 40% and…
Source: ysnews.comysnews.com
Sewers
Sanitary
Village-owned wastewater treatment plant on Grinnell Road, built in 1964 and upgraded in 2009. Most village wastewater reaches it through a single 2,900-foot, 16-inch ductile iron force main more than 60 years old, fed by the Bryan Lift Station, which handles 70% of village flow at about 90% of its 3.74 MGD capacity. Wessler Engineering…
Storm
Utility billing bundles water, sewer and electric, the village running its own electric utility.
Source: ysnews.comysnews.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
- 45387 · Yellow Springs69% 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
Yellow Springs Village does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Yellow Springs Village.
What the records show about Yellow Springs Village
Who runs it
EPA's record describes Yellow Springs Village as owned by a local government. It has 2,088 service connections and serves 3,761 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 937-767-7208.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), water system record.
How the water is treated
EPA's treatment table registers these steps for Yellow Springs Village: aeration, coagulation and settling, chlorine disinfection, 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 Yellow Springs Village since 2015.
EPA logs 1 violation of any kind since 2020: 1 for a report, record or notice that was missing, late or incomplete (the yearly water quality report, a public notice, lead line records).
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 2025, the 90th-percentile lead result at Yellow Springs Village was 2.3 ppb, under both the current 15 ppb action level and the 10 ppb level that applies from 2027.
The highest result on file is 5.7 ppb, in the period ending December 2022.
EPA has 10 sampling periods on file for Yellow Springs Village 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 Yellow Springs Village sent EPA, 1,821 lines are counted.
| Material | Lines |
|---|---|
| Lead | 0 |
| Galvanized, needing replacement | 114 |
| Unknown material | 557 |
| Not lead | 1,150 |
| All lines | 1,821 |
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 Yellow Springs Village in 2023 and measured 29 PFAS.
The highest PFOA or PFOS result, 9.2 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 PFOS 9.2 ng/L.
Ohio EPA's own statewide sampling tested 1 plant of Yellow Springs Village (latest sample August 2020). Not one of the six PFAS tested (PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX and PFBS) was detected.
| Compound | Highest result | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| PFOA | not detected | 4 ng/L |
| PFOS | 9.2 ng/L | 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 Yellow Springs Village's samples in 2019, the last year it was sampled, was 13.8 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 35.4 µg/L and the highest single sample was 37.7 µg/L, from 14 samples taken from 2013 to 2019.
For HAA5, the average in the last year sampled was 0 µg/L. The worst yearly average was 3.8 µg/L and the highest single sample was 4.6 µg/L, from 14 samples.
| Byproduct | Limit | Latest yearly average | Worst yearly average | Highest sample | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 80 µg/L | 13.8 µg/L (2019) | 35.4 µg/L | 37.7 µg/L | 14 |
| HAA5 | 60 µg/L | 0 µg/L | 3.8 µg/L | 4.6 µg/L | 14 |
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 0.18 mg/L (as nitrogen) in 2018; in 2019, the last year sampled, nitrate was not detected. 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 | 0.18 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 143 µg/L (limit 2,000). Not detected: atrazine in 8 samples, alachlor in 8 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 | 8 | 0 of 8 | not detected | 0 |
| Alachlor | Farm chemical | 2 µg/L | 8 | 0 of 8 | 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 | 143 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, 2 of 389 routine total coliform samples taken in the distribution system at Yellow Springs Village tested positive (0.51%); in 2019, the last year on file, 0 of 48 did. E. coli was never found in the 112 samples tested for it.
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 Yellow Springs Village has fluoride from natural sources, but at a level below what is recommended for preventing tooth decay, and does not adjust it. The level it reports is 0.18 mg/L.
EPA's treatment table lists no fluoridation step at Yellow Springs Village.
Measured fluoride: 0.2 mg/L on average at the plant's entry points in 2017 (too little to protect teeth); samples ran from 0.2 to 0.22 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 found in 1 of 2 UCMR 5 samples at Yellow Springs Village, highest 11.3 µg/L, last sampled in 2023.
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 Yellow Springs Village 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 3,665 residents are inside the boundary, 97% of the 3,761 people Yellow Springs Village 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 — 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
EPA's own record for this system: Enforcement and Compliance History report for OH2903012 (EPA ECHO).
Notable facts: ysnews.com
History: ysnews.com
Water quality: data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov, ysnews.com
Planned work: ysnews.com
Capital projects: ysnews.com
Rates: ysnews.com
Sewers: ysnews.com, ysnews.com
Treatment: ysnews.com, data.epa.gov, data.epa.gov
Supply stress: ysnews.com, ysnews.com
