Bowling Green City

• The city only draws from the Maumee when the river is of high quality, banking it in a 170-million-gallon above-ground reservoir that holds about 30 days of raw water.
• Bowling Green runs two independent treatment trains side by side - conventional sand filtration and a microfiltration/reverse-osmosis membrane system - then blends the two finished waters.
• About 90 miles of water main, ranging from 6 to 36 inches, feed roughly 9,000 water meters.
• The plant started in 1950 at just 3 MGD; after the 2020 membrane expansion it is rated about 10.7 MGD in summer.

• 1950Original Bowling Green water treatment plant built with a 3.0 MGD capacity; expanded to 6 MGD in 1968 with added filters and clarifiers.
• 1990The 170-million-gallon above-ground raw water reservoir was built, letting the city bank Maumee River water when quality is good.
• 2011First 3 MGD microfiltration / reverse osmosis system installed at the plant (2011-2012), adding a membrane train alongside sand filtration.
• 2020Two more microfiltration trains completed; the plant's final rating reached 10.03 MGD in winter and 10.7 MGD in summer.
• 2026A new water rate schedule was approved January 12, 2026, effective April 1, 2026, raising the residential customer charge to $4.25/month.

How it is treated

Two independent trains treat reservoir-stored Maumee water: conventional multi-barrier (rapid sand filters) and Integrated Membrane (microfiltration + reverse osmosis); GAC and UV also used. The two finished waters are blended, chlorinated and fluoridated.

Water pressure

not published; no psi figure or pressure-zone map found in the CCR, the Water Distribution page, or other city water pages.

$2.81 per 1,000 gallons

Typical household bill about $18 a month for water.

Inside-city residential effective 4/1/2026 (approved 1/12/2026): $0.021/cu ft (~$2.81/1,000 gal) plus $4.25/mo meter charge; bill shown for 5,000 gal/mo.

EPA compliance record

Lead at the tap: 90th-percentile result 0 ppb in 2025 (action level 15 ppb).

EPA record: no health-based violations since 2015.

2 violations of any kind logged since 2020, 2 of them paperwork (monitoring, reporting, public notice or consumer report).

Recent and current work

• Rapid sand filter rebuild and fluoride building · 2016-2017 · completed
  Six rapid sand filters rebuilt with new filter bottoms and air added to the backwash cycle.
• Microfiltration train expansion · 2020 · completed
  Two more microfiltration trains added to feed the RO membranes; plant then rated 10.03 MGD winter and 10.7 MGD summer.

Ohio EPA revised the source water assessment in 2025; all Ohio surface waters are rated susceptible, and the Maumee protection area holds farm runoff, industrial storm water, feed lots and wastewater discharges. The CCR names TTHMs as its one historic compliance exception.

Sanitary

City-run Bowling Green WWTP, an Ohio EPA Class IV plant rated 10 MGD average and 30 MGD peak wet-weather flow: screening, primary settling, aeration, secondary settling, tertiary treatment and UV disinfection; biosolids are aerobically digested into topsoil additive. Opened 1982, expanded 2005.

Storm

Partly combined: one CSO outfall near E. Poe Rd and Mercer Rd discharges to the E. Poe Road ditch in large wet-weather events, with public notice under 40 CFR 122.38. No stormwater fee found.

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