Greene County - Kitridge

• The Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer holds more than a trillion gallons and is the principal water source for an estimated 1.5 million people in southwest Ohio.
• Dayton recycles its own softening waste: a Lime Recovery Facility recalcines lime sludge from both plants back into usable lime, 36,533 tons of it in 2021.
• Each of Dayton's two plants is rated at 96 million gallons a day, yet the city pumped about 24.35 billion gallons in all of 2025, roughly a third of that capacity.
• Dayton's 1870 waterworks used a Holly system, an early direct-pumping fire-and-water design; it started up March 31, 1870, after voters approved it in 1869.

• 1869-1870Dayton voters approved a municipal waterworks in 1869; a Holly direct-pumping system began operating March 31, 1870.
• 1929Dayton's Division of Water Reclamation began continuous operation, treating sewage before discharge to the Great Miami River.
• 1988U.S. EPA designated the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer, Dayton's sole water source, a Sole Source Aquifer in May 1988.
• 2016In April 2016 Dayton took production wells near Tait's Hill out of service over PFAS suspected from the city's own Fire Training Center.
• 2021The city sued Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Pentagon over PFAS contamination of its groundwater.

How it is treated

Conventional lime (calcium oxide) softening, then pH adjustment with carbon dioxide, fluoridation, chlorine disinfection, and rapid sand filtration as the final step. A Lime Recovery Facility recalcines softening sludge from both plants back into usable lime.

Water pressure

Not published. Dayton runs 2 main and 11 booster pump stations and 16 storage facilities holding 88 million gallons, implying several zones, but no psi figure.

$5.97 per 1,000 gallons

Effective Jan 1, 2026: $44.67 per 1,000 cubic feet on the first block, which is $5.97/1,000 gal, plus an $18.60 monthly minimum for a 5/8-inch meter.

EPA compliance record · Greene County - Kitridge

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2024 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

EPA compliance record · Dayton Public Water System (treats the water)

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2023 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

Recent and current work

• Lime Recovery Facility recalcination · 2021 · completed
  Reclaims lime from softening residuals at both plants; produced 36,533 tons of recovered lime in 2021.
• Tait's Hill production well removal · 2016 · completed
  City proactively took wells near its Fire Training Center out of service over suspected PFAS contamination.
• Renewable natural gas from digester biogas · 2024 · completed
  Since November 2024 biogas from the Water Reclamation Plant's anaerobic digesters is cleaned and injected into gas pipelines.

Planned or needed

• PFAS removal facility and treatment plant retrofit · 2024 · planned
  City estimates $300M-$500M for PFAS remediation and management; a reported ~$350M Shook contract could not be verified from a primary source.
• PFAS treatment pilot and plant upgrades · planned
  EPA pilot treatment project underway; part-funded by 0% Ohio EPA loans with principal forgiveness the city says will not raise water rates.
• Wright-Patterson AFB remediation request · 2024 · proposed
  An October 2024 letter asked the base to remediate PFAS; the city had already sued the base and the Pentagon in 2021.

PFAS from firefighting foam is the binding constraint: Ottawa plant finished water averaged 8.81 ppt PFOS and 13.53 ppt PFHxS in 2025, over the 4 and 10 ppt MCLs. Quantity is not a concern - the aquifer holds over a trillion gallons and is river-recharged - but treatment will cost hundreds of millions.

Sanitary

Dayton's Division of Water Reclamation has run continuously since 1929; the plant is rated 72 MGD and discharges to the Great Miami River at river mile 76.1, serving about 340,000 people including parts of Greene County and Wright-Patterson AFB. About 765 miles of sanitary sewer.

Storm

A separate MS4 storm system of over 400 miles of storm sewers, run by the city's Sewer Maintenance Bureau alongside 28 pumping stations. No stormwater utility fee was found published.

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