Barberton City

• Barberton was founded in 1891 by industrialist Ohio Columbus (O.C.) Barber, the Diamond Match magnate whose company town gave the city its name.
• The Barberton Reservoir is a 200-acre, 670-million-gallon lake on Upper Wolf Creek, fed by an 18,062-acre watershed spanning Medina and Summit counties.
• Two emergency interconnects with Akron's system sit ready as a backstop, but Barberton didn't buy a single gallon from Akron in 2025.
• Qualifying Barberton homeowners get a 20% discount rate of $7.22 per 1,000 gallons, and the water runs hard - about 170 ppm total hardness.

• 1891City of Barberton founded by industrialist Ohio Columbus (O.C.) Barber, the Diamond Match Company magnate.
• 1969Ohio law took effect requiring fluoride to be added to public drinking water; Barberton still fluoridates under it, averaging 0.88 ppm in 2025.
• 2025Design work continued on an infrastructure improvement plan for the Barberton Reservoir dam, expected to go out to bid in late 2026.
• 2025The water treatment plant's own septic system was found no longer serviceable; a replacement pump station was designed for 2026 installation.
• 2026A 5% across-the-board water and sewer rate increase took effect with the March 2026 billing, under a standing 2013 ordinance allowing up to 5% a year.

How it is treated

Conventional treatment: mixing, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and chlorine disinfection, plus fluoride and orthophosphate for corrosion control. Backup: three wells on Pigeon and Wolf Creek (4.6 MGD) and two emergency Akron interconnects.

Water pressure

not published; no psi figure or pressure-zone data found in the 2025 CCR, the 2026 rate schedule, or the city utilities pages.

$9.02 per 1,000 gallons

Typical household bill about $45 a month for water.

Residential, +5% effective March 2026: $9.02/1,000 gal to 30,000 gal, then $8.02/$7.49; $22.55/mo minimum covers 2,500 gal. Bill shown at 5,000 gal/mo.

EPA compliance record

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 5.6 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

Recent and current work

• Water main replacements · 2025 · completed
  Wooster Road West from 4th to 27th Street, Frank Street and Wisteria Drive water mains replaced.
• Barberton-Norton distribution expansion and Norton elevated storage tank · 2025 · completed
  Joint Barberton-Norton project for Brookside Greens off Greenwich Rd; tank finished before the CCR circulated; mains on Wadsworth Rd to SR 21.

Planned or needed

• Barberton Reservoir dam infrastructure improvement · 2026 · planned
  Design phase continued through 2025; the project is expected to go out to bid in late 2026. No cost published.
• Treatment plant septic-to-pump-station conversion · 2026 · planned
  The plant's septic system is no longer serviceable; a replacement pump station was designed in 2025 for 2026 installation.

Both sources rate as susceptible in the city's own CCR: all Ohio surface water is presumed vulnerable, and the backup sand-and-gravel aquifer is shallow with no significant protective layer above it. The 18,062-acre Upper Wolf Creek watershed carries farm runoff and home sewage system risk.

Sanitary

Barberton's Sewer Division serves about 13,000 customers (the water side serves ~11,000) with its own treatment plant, industrial pretreatment and collection crews. Sewer is billed on metered water use: $6.43/1,000 gal to 30,000 gal, $16.08/mo minimum. Plant capacity and receiving stream were not found.

Storm

The Sewer Division maintains sanitary, storm and combined sewers, so part of the city is on a combined system. No stormwater utility fee, CSO outfall count, or consent-decree status was found in available sources.

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