Greene County has completed a $49 million upgrade to its Northwest Regional Water Plant, benefiting 23,000 customers with softer water produced through reverse osmosis technology. This chemical-free softening process reduces water hardness from 27 to 8 grains per gallon, helping to prevent calcium buildup and extend the life of household appliances. The upgrade also boosts the plant’s capacity from 9.5 to 12 million gallons per day and improves its ability to handle unregulated contaminants. However, residents in Xenia, Fairborn, Jamestown, Bellbrook, and those using well water are not affected, as they rely on different water systems, writes WYSO.

“It uses a nanofiltration membrane. The pore sizes of the membrane is actually smaller than most of our compounds that we’re pushing through that’s in the raw water,” says Director Mark Chandler. “So the reverse osmosis is a process that by a pump, the water is actually forced through the membrane. And then that’s what we blend together with filtered water. We set the desired hardness and then it’s distributed back out. It’s going to eliminate the calcium in the scaling build up that does quickly degrade household appliances,” said Chandler. “That’s where the savings long term will come in for the customers.”