Why is Yellow Springs water so expensive?

It’s a question asked in anguish by some villagers each month as they open their utility bills, and one that Village staffers and administrators have renewed their efforts to answer — efforts that come on the heels of the recent publication of data that shows that Yellow Springs residents pay more for municipal water and sewer than every other Miami Valley community, and many beyond. 

As nearby examples, the average monthly combined water and sewer bill in Fairborn is about $66, according to that community’s finance director. In Enon, it’s $26 and in Xenia, it’s $38, per the rates outlined in their municipal ordinances.  

Here in Yellow Springs, the average village household is charged about $94 per month, according to data from the Village metering and billing departments.  

Speaking with the News earlier this month, Village Manager Johnnie Burns said the reason behind that discrepancy can be traced back to local decision-making from decades ago, and is five-fold: 

• The ongoing payments on a $6.7 million loan for the Village’s new water treatment plant, which was finished in 2017 and annually siphons 30% of the water department’s budget;

• Water rates that, as a result of political decisions, stagnated for about a decade in the early 2000s, that have since risen exponentially to make up for lost time;

• Keeping up with EPA guidelines and that grow ever more strict, and sometimes divert money and attention toward utility improvements, sometimes unrelated to water, but still take would-be resources away from water improvements;

• More than four decades of deferred maintenance on the various components of our 98-year-old municipal water system, including water lines, mains, towers, valves and hydrants;

• And the costs of mitigating municipal water loss, which in 2025, was almost 32.5 million gallons. 

All those costs, Burns said, are necessarily passed onto the consumer —  shared among the 1,927 water utility customers in Yellow Springs. “The Village can only absorb so much,” he said. 

Cost of treatment

“The new plant is the big one,” Burns said. “That’s really the bottom line — it’s why our rates are so high. Not even 2,000 accounts trying to pay off a $6.7 million loan.”

Presently, the Village pays more than $440,000 a year on the loan, with the intent to pay it off in 20 more years. 

Despite the lasting price tag, Burns maintains building a new treatment plant was worth the money, and that municipal water has improved considerably even just in the last decade — from notably hard and occasionally brown water to award-winning water in statewide competitions. 

Discussions about the need for a new water plant began around 2011, due, as the News previously reported, to the deteriorating conditions of the previous plant, which was then about 60 years old. As former Water Superintendent Brad Ault told the News, the old plant required constant repairs and had little, if any back-up machinery in the event of mechanical failures. 

Village leaders mulled over several alternatives to building new, including purchasing water from Springfield or Xenia, but public opinion strongly favored that the Village maintain local control of its water. As a result, Village leaders considered whether to build a new plant or rehab the old — eventually siding with the former, opting to spend around $7 million over the course of 30  years, rather than spend less in the immediate on renovations, but likely more on a necessitated new build later on. 

The Village contracted with HNTB to act as the criteria engineer on the project, and worked closely with Ault, then-Electric and Water Distribution Superintendent Burns, then-Manager Patti Bates and other staffers to tailor the design of the new project to Yellow Springs’ needs — namely mineral removal, softening and the ability to handle a daily flow of 1 million gallons. 

Water began flowing through the new plant — more than twice the size of the old one — in 2017, and it sits right by the flattened remains of the old one, just off the Village wellfield at the end of Jacoby Road. 

Since the new plant went online, manganese — the naturally occurring mineral that would occasionally discolor residential and commercial water brown — has all but disappeared from local water. Water hardness, likewise, has gone down. In 2016, water measured approximately 500 mg/L, or roughly 30 grains per gallon; according to  the Village’s most recent Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report, it  now measures about 213 mg/L, or 12 grains per gallon — which, despite the change, is still classified as “very hard,” per the U.S. Geological Survey. 

Likely from these changes to the municipal water, Burns said, the Village has won “best water” twice —  once in 2023 and again in 2025 — in the annual Ohio Rural Water Association’s statewide taste contest. 

“We’ve come a long, long way,” Burns said. 

Fast-foward to spring 2026, and more changes are underway at the Village water plant — Superintendent Ault’s last day with the Village was Feb. 27, ending his 19-year tenure in Yellow Springs Public Works, which began in 2007 as a part-time worker. 

Taking the helm of the water department in an interim capacity is Kevin Martin, who’s been with the Village for eight years. Until Burns finds a permanent replacement for Ault, it’s just Martin, Dale Fisher and Jeff Horn splitting their time between the municipal treatment and wastewater plants.

“I’ve got a lot of faith that Kevin will do a good job,” Ault told the News on his final day. “He might not have seen everything I’ve seen, but he knows what to do.”

“Yeah, so I can run the plants just fine,” Martin said. “But it’s the going to Council meetings and planning out the capital improvements that’ll be the biggest learning curves.”

Improvements, maintenance also drive up rates 

Martin and Ault share Burns’ pride in the Village’s ongoing water improvements, but all three acknowledged the long road ahead in bringing the municipal system up to villagers’ expectations and the EPA’s standards.  

Of the Village’s 30 miles of water lines that connect the Jacoby plant to the towers, and to every tap and hydrant in town, two miles of pipe need replacing, per EPA requirements. Those lines — mostly located in the older part of town along Davis, Stafford, Elm, Phillips and the several College streets — are made of galvanized steel, which the EPA includes in its lead-based classification. 

As previously reported in the News, the Village needs an estimated $2.5 million in funds to replace those two miles of galvanized lines. 

Other forthcoming and costly water improvements include removing toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAs — long-lasting chemicals, with micro components that break down slowly over time — from the local water supply.  

Presently, the Village water department is registering well under the EPA’s health advisory limit for PFAs in drinking water at 70 parts per trillion gallons. The Village regularly detects an average of nine parts per trillion in just one of the four wells along Jacoby Road  —  “Or nine drops in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools,” Martin said. 

However, in 2029, the EPA will change its limits to four parts per trillion; municipalities — including Yellow Springs — will be given three years to meet the new standard. 

The solution to meeting that forthcoming standard on PFAs mitigation is yet to be determined, Martin said, but he is in sustained talks with the EPA to make it happen. 

Municipal water loss — from leaky underground pipes to water main breaks — can also drive up local water costs that may be passed onto the consumer, Martin said. That’s in addition to and beyond the added costs a customer incurs from their own household leaks from toilets or hoses. 

By virtue of the water treatment plant needing to process more water that ultimately goes unused, Martin and his team need to use chemicals such as more sand for softening, sodium hydroxide for pH control, sodium hypochlorite for oxidation and chlorine for killing bacteria. 

In 2025 alone, Yellow Springs’ “lost” 28.19% of all water that was initially processed by the water treatment plant. That means that of the 115.2 million gallons of clean water produced, only 81.01 gallons were billed for. According to the EPA, the average municipality should expect to lose 14 to 16% of its water. 

Though well above that average, the Village water loss appears to be headed in the right direction. 2025 began with a monthly loss that averaged around 40%; the year ended with an average closer to 20%. Burns attributes that improvement to the implementation of the Village’s new remote water meters that can let readers know of a leak within hours of detection, rather than days, or in the past, even weeks. 

Taken together, these ongoing infrastructure improvements that need to be made “right darn now,” as Burns says, add up and force the Village to make challenging and often costly decisions. 

“I mean, we still have to do an exercising program on valves that haven’t been turned in 30 and 40 years, and they’re going to start breaking,” he said. “Well, that’s $6,000 to $10,000 a valve, and we have 300-plus valves.”

While grant funding can help the Village make these kinds of repairs and to stay within state-mandated compliance, more often than not, Burns said, the cost of these projects typically take the form of utility rate increases.  

Breaking down the bill

The rate at which Yellow Springs residents are charged for water has surged over the last 30 years. 

Whereas in 1997, water customers were charged $2.15 per every 1,000 gallons used, now villagers are charged a rate of $18.04 per 1,000 gallons. Next year, it will be $19.48.

Bearing in mind that the average Yellow Springs household uses 2,300 gallons per month, one can extrapolate that the average water-related amount on a monthly residential utility bill is $93.79, according to Village meter reader and billing clerk Rose Pelzl

Pelzl contends that, while that amount is higher than most other surrounding communities, it’s not quite as high as recent reports and studies may have led some to believe. 

Specifically, Pelzl referenced an annual rate cost survey that the Piqua Utilities Department released at the end of last year, which compared water and sewer costs of 70 utility jurisdictions throughout Ohio. The report measured average billing rates from March 2025 through the end of last year, based on a household’s use of 22,500 gallons or 3,000 cubic feet of water over a three-month period. 

By those metrics, the survey found the average Yellow Springs utility customer pays an average of $710.19 per quarter for both water and sewer, or $236 per month — which contradicts the household averages she sees on a daily basis. 

According to Pelzl’s interpretation, the survey assumes that the average village water customer uses more than three times the amount of water they actually use per month. Furthermore, Pelzl noted that the Village bills per thousand gallons, and rounds down to the nearest thousand. So, based on the current rates, if a customer only uses 1,000 gallons — which, she noted, is the average amount a single-occupant household goes through each month — bills average to about $54. 

Pelzl said she doesn’t deny Yellow Springs’ comparatively high water costs to other municipalities. She attributes much of that current exorbitance to a lack of proactivity from Village Councils and administrations of the past — particularly those who didn’t “make the proactive choice” to incrementally raise water rates over time and make infrastructure improvements before reaching a “critical  point.”

“This is what happens when you kick the can down the road over and over and over again,” Pelzl said. 

She pointed to the years between 2002 and 2009 when the water rates didn’t rise at all. That decade began with a water rate of $3.15 per 1,000 gallons; the rate stagnated at $3.45 for eight years, then rose to $3.80 in 2010. 

Five years later, in 2015, water rates skyrocketed by a 30% increase in a single year — then again the following year, and then again. By 2019, rates were at $12.97. 

“What I think we saw happen was that the people who were elected then finally understood the infrastructure emergency that we were in, and they couldn’t ignore it any longer,” Pelzl said, referring to the Council who voted to buck the trend of not raising rates. 

“There were finally people on Council who were fiscally conscious enough to understand that they had to take the political hit to raise the rates,” she said. “So that’s the difference between a municipal-owned utility and a private one. This is all decided democratically and not by markets, which I truly believe is a good thing. But people need to  be informed to make good decisions.”

Most recently, in 2023, Council voted to raise sewer, electric and water rates through 2027 — as it pertains to water, Council authorized an 8% increase for each of those years. 

As reported in the News at that time, that decision was prompted by former Village Manager Josue Salmeron wanting to heed the recommendation of Courtney & Associates, the Village’s retainer public utility consultant, to make the rates reflect the cost of providing water service.  

Council member Carmen Brown stands by her vote authorizing that increase, and told the News in a recent discussion that past Councils ought to have gradually raised rates over time instead of dramatically and all at once. 

“This absolutely should have been happening incrementally,” Brown said. “If rates went up slowly over time, then maybe we could have squirreled away enough money to not go into debt for a new water treatment plant.”

For some villagers, though, the improved quality of water isn’t worth the monthly utility costs. 

Longtime Yellow Springs resident Wren Slone said that while she feels the cost of water in the village is high compared to elsewhere, she noted that the quality has improved since the treatment plant went online — though she and her husband still suffer lime scale and other hard water issues.

“When we lived in Dayton, the water was much better and a third of the cost,” Slone said. “We use between one and two thousand gallons a month and our bill still averages $100 per month.”

She continued: “It the cost of the service worth it? No, but unfortunately, we are stuck paying the bill for the choices residents and Council made years ago.”

Villager Jason Laveck said that he’s regularly astonished by his high utility bills — with water and sewer accounting for more than half of his monthly amount owed. 

“My water bills from any other municipality have never been this much. On average I remember paying $100 at most per quarter,” Laveck said. “I feel pretty uneasy about the cost of our electric and water, but also try to do my best to understand our growing infrastructure and the improvements that seem to be ongoing.” 

He added: “But when there’s a water main break every other week in the winter, I do not feel I’m getting my money’s worth.”

For Council member Brown, the village’s neverending utility woes are part and parcel with its geography. 

“I think everyone forgets that Yellow Springs is a rural community in the state of Ohio,” she said. “We expect urban services in a rural community — champagne on a beer budget.”

The Village offers several services and programs to help village residents with their utility bills.

Individuals can sign up for the Utility Round-Up Program, which can provide individuals who are under threat of disconnection of their services with up to $400 per year. The application for the program can be found at http://www.yellowsprings.gov. 

Yellow Springs Emergency Assistance, or YSEA, can also help villagers in need with utility payments. For those in need, call the Village Community Outreach Specialist Florence Randolph at 937-767-3716. 

The News plans to break down mounting electric costs in a future article.