Yellow Springs Village

• 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

• 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

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. No system pressure figure appears in the sources reviewed.

$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

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 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).

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

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

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

Not detailed in the sources reviewed. Utility billing bundles water, sewer and electric, the village running its own electric utility.

Source: ysnews.comysnews.com

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