Water and Sewer Division

Can Galion's water supply keep up with demand and continued growth? 

'Yes'!

Ammans Reservoir, Galion's only in-stream reservoir, together with Powers and Amicks Reservoirs, provide a daily average water flow of more than 365 days of capacity, even if no rainfall should occur. Meanwhile, the daily average water usage in the City has remained steady at 1.3 million gallons per day for the last three years.

If water demand were to increase by 20 percent, the watershed's storage supply would decrease from 365 days to 304 days. Storage supply refers to the number of days the City can go without rainfall, without having to replenish water supplies or restrict usage.

Galion's drought records show that during the 1999 drought, the reservoirs' lowest levels fell to just over 372 days. During the 1987 drought, lowest levels reached 100 days supply. These supply figures include a factor to maintain minimum depth to sustain the reservoirs' aquatic life.

As a contingency plan for long-term growth and sustained increase in demand for water, the City has in its possession current, engineered and approved plans for the construction of an additional pumping station on the Olentangy River. Costs for construction of the additional pumping station is included in the City's Capital Improvement Plan, but it has been assigned a low priority since the City already has excess water capacity.

If large water users were to come on line, they would bear the costs of water delivery through tap charges and system capacity charges. Current water customers would not experience rate increases to help support the additional demand.