Water system
Bellefontaine City
EPA ID OH4600112 · Logan County · 13,249 people served · owned by a local government
Bellefontaine City treats its own water from local wells (shallow carbonate aquifer).
The system's record
- Aquifer
- local carbonate bedrock aquifer
- Active wells
- 5
- Serves
- 13,249 people · Logan County
- EPA ID
- OH4600112
Wells located west of Lewis Ratleff Park draw from a shallow carbonate bedrock aquifer (water table typically <30 ft deep); treated at plant built 1998.
About this area's water
Did you know
- Bellefontaine is nicknamed 'The Peak of Ohio' because Campbell Hill, the highest point in the state, lies inside the city limits — yet Ohio EPA's susceptibility analysis for the city's wellfield blames the flat…
- In 1891 George Bartholomew's Portland cement process paved Court Avenue in Bellefontaine, the first concrete street in the United States; it has held its original pavement for more than a century.
- The city's drinking water comes from a carbonate aquifer whose water table sits less than 30 feet below the surface in most places — shallow enough that Ohio EPA counts the depth itself as a susceptibility factor.
- Volatile organic compounds turned up in Bellefontaine's raw and treated water between 1990 and 1998; none have been detected since the new plant opened in 1998, which still runs a treatment step dedicated to keeping…
- Honda is Bellefontaine's largest modern employer, with area manufacturing at Marysville, East Liberty and Troy.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgcore-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.comci.bellefontaine.oh.us
History5
- 1820Bellefontaine platted by European American settlers; incorporated by the legislature in 1835. The city's bicentennial logo, used on its own water quality report, reads 'Celebrating 200 Years…
- 1891Court Avenue paved in Portland cement concrete using George Bartholomew's process — the first concrete street in the United States. It still carries its original pavement.
- 1990Ohio EPA sampling of Bellefontaine's raw and treated water between 1990 and 1998 found detectable levels of volatile organic compounds, a finding that still drives the wellfield's 'highly…
- 1998The city's current water treatment plant was completed and put into service. No organic compounds have been detected in samples collected since; the plant operates a treatment system specifically to…
- 2024City held an unconditioned license to operate the water system and participated in rounds 1 and 2 of the federal UCMR 5 unregulated contaminant monitoring.
Source: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.comen.wikipedia.org
Treatment & pressure
How it is treated
Municipal wells in the city's West wellfield draw from a shallow carbonate bedrock aquifer (depth to water usually less than 30 feet), west of Lewis Ratleff Park. Water is treated at the plant placed in service in 1998, which includes a treatment system operated specifically to keep volatile…
Source: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.comci.bellefontaine.oh.us
Water pressure
Not published. No system pressure figure, pressure-zone map, or hydraulic model appears in the CCR, the codified ordinances, or any city page; the city publishes no engineering…
Source: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.comcodelibrary.amlegal.com
What it costs
$3.10 per 1,000 gallons
Typical household bill about $28 a month for water.
Codified Ordinance 923.01(a), rate schedule adopted by Ord. 25-63 (passed 9-23-25). Effective January 1, 2026: a $16.05 monthly operations/administrative fee plus $3.10 per 1,000…
Source: codelibrary.amlegal.com
Water quality & impurities10
| Contaminant | Level | Limit | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper (90th percentile) 1 of 30 samples exceeded the 1.3 mg/L copper action level. At 63% of the AL this is the most elevated regulated result… | 0.822 mg/L | 1.3 (action… | 2024 |
| Barium Naturally occurring in the carbonate aquifer; about 8% of the MCL. No violation. | 0.155 mg/L | 2 | 2024 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) 47 ppb against an 80 ppb MCL; range 40-60 ppb. Disinfection byproduct, no violation, but the highest-percentage-of-MCL… | 0.047 mg/L | 0.080 | 2024 |
| Fluoride Range 0.79-1.3 mg/L. Naturally occurring plus additive for dental health; close to the 0.7 ppm optimum. No violation. | 0.86 mg/L | 4 | 2024 |
| Chlorine Range 0.3-1.6 mg/L. Water additive used to control microbes. | 0.8 mg/L | 4 (MRDL) | 2024 |
| Gross alpha (excluding radon and… Range 3-3 pCi/L. Erosion of natural deposits; monitored less than annually, so the most recent sample year is 2021. No… | 3 pCi/L | 15 | 2021 |
| Lead (90th percentile) 3 ppb. 0 of 30 samples exceeded the 15 ppb action level; two locations were resampled and returned within the action… | 0.003 mg/L | 0.015 (action… | 2024 |
| Nitrate About 1.5% of the MCL — remarkably low for an Ohio agricultural county, and in sharp contrast to the Trenton and… | 0.148 mg/L | 10 | 2024 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) 5 ppb; range ND-6 ppb. The CCR's MCL cell for HAA5 misprints as 'N/D'; the federal MCL is 0.060 mg/L. No violation. | 0.005 mg/L | 0.060 | 2024 |
| Mercury Not detected at or above the reporting limit. | ND mg/L | 0.002 | 2024 |
Source: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
EPA compliance record
Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 4.2 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).
EPA health-based violations since 2015:
- 2026Chlorine residual (SWTR) · treatment technique violation · returned to compliance
8 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 7 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).
Projects & plans1
Planned or needed
- Multi-year water rate escalation to fund capital improvement development · 2026 · planned
Ord. 25-63 (passed 9-23-25) sets three consecutive annual increases through 2028. Codified Ordinance 923.01 states the rates exist 'for the purpose of…
Source: codelibrary.amlegal.com
Supply stress
Ohio EPA's source water assessment rates the aquifer supplying Bellefontaine's West wellfield as HIGHLY susceptible to contamination, for four stated reasons: water quality results indicate impacts of volatile organic compounds; the carbonate aquifer has a shallow depth to water, in most areas less than 30 feet below ground; the…
Sewers
Sanitary
City-owned and operated. The Wastewater Treatment Plant sits on the southwest side of town at 610 South Troy Road and consists of two fine screens, two oxidation ditches, three secondary clarifiers, and UV disinfection; biosolids handling uses three aerated waste activated sludge holding tanks, four drying beds, and an Ashbrook belt…
Storm
The city operates a formal storm drainage utility under Codified Ordinances Chapter 927 (Storm Water Drainage System), financed by user fees based on Equivalent Residential Units — a property's impervious area measured against the average single-family…
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
- 43311 · Bellefontaine71% 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
Bellefontaine City does not buy water from another system on record; it treats its own source water.
No other system is on record buying water from Bellefontaine City.
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
Bellefontaine City's own pages: ci.bellefontaine.oh.us
Notable facts: en.wikipedia.org, core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com, ci.bellefontaine.oh.us
History: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com, en.wikipedia.org
Water quality: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
Planned work: codelibrary.amlegal.com
Water pressure: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com, codelibrary.amlegal.com
Rates: codelibrary.amlegal.com
Sewers: ci.bellefontaine.oh.us, codelibrary.amlegal.com
Treatment: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com, ci.bellefontaine.oh.us
Supply stress: core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com