Our Commitment to Water Quality
We provide a variety of services to protect surface water quality. Those services include a comprehensive approach to stormwater management, best management practices and a sediment and erosion control program for managing the impact of construction sites on local waterways.
A proactive and comprehensive Watershed Management program also protects drinking water source quality. The department participates in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), which is designed to help minimize the impact from agricultural activities occurring upstream. For property owners adjacent to our reservoirs, a Land Stewardship Program is in place to instill practices which have a positive impact on water quality while providing a nearly maintenance-free landscape.
Such cooperative efforts benefit the entire community, including future generations, wildlife and aquatic species.
We also protect the quality of life downstream of Columbus by discharging clean water from our wastewater treatment plants. Regulated by the Ohio EPA, we must meet the requirements of various permits including the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System stormwater permit and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Columbus' Watershed Management Program
A high quality water supply source allows us to provide Columbus area residents with excellent drinking water at a reasonable cost. Our watershed program's focus is to protect our drinking water source and supply.
Wellfield Protection
This program focuses on the protection of groundwater, a drinking water source and supply located in southern Franklin County. Governed by Chapter 1115 of the Columbus City Code, specific precautions are required in the wellfield to ensure that the potential for contamination is minimized or eliminated.
Drinking Water Quality and Monitoring
The Water Quality Lab performs water quality monitoring and treatment research to ensure that Columbus drinking water meets or exceeds federally mandated Safe Drinking Water Act standards.
Take a Tour of Green Infrastructure in Use
Green infrastructure can improve the quality of storm water entering the reservoirs that supply our drinking water. Follow signage installed at Griggs, O'Shaughnessy & Hoover Reservoirs invites park visitors to learn about the green infrastructure installed there.
Blueprint Columbus
Blueprint Columbus takes all of the regulatory challenges of complying with the Clean Water Act into consideration and uses green infrastructure to meet these challenges and efficiently achieve water quality goals.