Chillicothe — Providing water to the city is not just a matter of pumping it out of the ground – and it’s not cheap.
A tour of the water treatment plant shows that the city’s water is cleaner and better protected than average city water, and that it is also highly monitored…and its chemical and electrical usage is expensive.
That’s what the manager of the Chillicothe Water Treatment Plant pointed out in an open house there on August 26th, 2025. When Chillicothe Mayor Luke Feeney offered “office hours” at the Chillicothe Water Treatment Plant in Yoctangee Park, I took the opportunity to take a tour afterward.
Tom Jenkins, Water Treatment Plant Manager, spoke with me after leading his tour – along with city Utilities Director Nathan Prosch, who oversees all city water systems since being hired about a year ago.
The plant has been in use for about 34 years. I remember the random water restrictions by city wards during a particularly droughty summer, before the “new” water treatment plant came online in 1991. I also remember touring the old plant on Park Street, and seeing a motor that I was told may have been running continuously for decades. (That 1941 facility was demolished and is now the site of Veterans Memorial Park.)
Jenkins said the plant pumps out about a billion gallons of water a year, but treatment chemicals are the biggest expense – about $375K a year.
Electrical use by all the huge pumps is second at about $200K. But Jenkins said that has been reduced by switching to Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) motors that use less electricity. Originally, motors ran at full-tilt, and if less flow was desired, the flow would be gated down with a valve. Now, the VFD motors can simply be dialed down.
I joked that at least water is free – a huge amount available in the deep sand and gravel filling the floor of the valley of the ancient Teays River, where the Scioto flows in the opposite direction.
That source in the “Teays Valley Aquifer” contributes to Chillicothe’s water supply being covered at all times. Unlike Columbus and Central Ohio’s sources of water, which are dammed-up rivers and streams, there is no surface exposure to boating, wildlife, sewage, pollution, and more. Jenkins said that even the original 3.8M gallon open basin on top of Carlisle Hill has a floating rubber cover.
Jenkins pointed out that the plant consumes much electricity and chemicals – which have their cost. But because of the quality of the original water, they can use a minimal amount of chemicals required. There’s even a chance that the EPA will allow less fluoridation, and Jenkins said he would be “happy to turn it down a notch.” As for the EPA, he said they strictly control the plant – “the EPA looks over our shoulder all the time.”
Jenkins said he hopes to get back to offering tours, which were shut down by Covid, to help educate the public…as well as school classes.
See and hear more in my three video edits of the tour in a separate story, as well as the two parts of my interview with the plant manager and the city utilities director. Below is part two of the interview, with part one in a separate story – focused on the Wear-Ever groundwater pollution.
