This story was updated on July 23 to clarify that Del-Co Water Company representatives will not speak during the Licking County Farm Bureau meeting on July 29 but intend to host a separate information session at a later date.
Water access and management is a growing concern for consumers, landowners and local governments because of increasing development pressures, so the Licking County Farm Bureau is holding a information session to discuss “reasonable use and … surface and groundwater access, as well as requirements to establish public and private water distribution networks.”
At the request of area landowners and Washington Township trustees, the Licking County Farm Bureau is hosting the meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Utica Church of Christ, 115 N. Central Ave., to help property owners better understand water-resource management.
Initially, Del-Co Water Company representatives had planned to speak during the meeting to talk about the company and explain its interest in potentially drilling water wells just south of Utica in Licking County’s Washington Township, but Glenn Marzluf, general manager and chief operating officer of Del-Co, said on July 23 that the company will host a separate informational meeting at a later date.
“We will be able to answer questions with more certainty later,” Marzluf said.
He said the member-owned, nonprofit cooperative utility based in Delaware County will have results from test wells in Washington Township within a few months, and that will allow the company to provide more details than it has in hand now. “We’ll look to find a location for a meeting for maybe the last quarter of 2025,” he added.
Kayla Jones, senior organization director of the Licking County Farm Bureau, said in a news release that as representatives from water service providers increasingly contact county residents about potential water resources from aquifers under area farms, “many folks have a number of questions and concerns.”
The Farm Bureau is working with the Licking County Soil & Water Conservation District, local governments and community stakeholders to create a 30-year development plan for these types of issues. Farm, residential and local business requirements need to be addressed in all development projects before any initiatives go forward, the Farm Bureau says, and “current federal and state regulations governing water system development ensure that local communities are part of the process.”
| Read more: A Delaware County water system’s search for water in Licking County creates anxiety in Washington Township
Del-Co has an option to purchase a 95-acre farm just south of Ginger Hill Road and east of Rt. 13 in a floodplain along the North Fork of the Licking River. Del-Co will buy the farm if test wells indicate the company could expect a sustained volume of 1 million or more gallons a day.
Marzluf said Del-Co is expecting to find between 3 million and 6 million gallons a day of sustained yield from a well or wells in Washington Township.
Washington Township trustees have heard concerns from local residents about the potential effects utility-scale pumping could have on their residential wells. And the trustees share residents’ concerns about local water potentially being piped out of the area, said Trustee Nelson Smith.
Marzluf said Del-Co is always looking for potential new sources and is generally interested in providing water to residents and businesses in areas where utilities aren’t currently available. The company is looking to compete with other water utilities serving Licking County.
The public meeting in Utica will be facilitated by Dale Arnold, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation director of energy, utility and local government policy.
“Farmers and rural neighbors are being asked to get involved in a variety of planning decisions concerning utility-scale water development in the county,” Arnold said in a release posted on the Farm Bureau website. He said that such projects could include expansion of service lines and upgrades with current water utilities, as well as construction of new systems in rural areas.
Demand for water in Licking County is growing exponentially because of rapid growth in general and high-volume use of water by data centers and other industrial users, including Intel, which is building a $28 billion computer-chip manufacturing campus in western Licking County and has said it will buy water from the City of Columbus.
Del-Co primarily serves Delaware County and serves customers in parts of seven other counties. It is interested in serving rural areas of northern Licking County and southern Knox County, Marzluf said. And it would consider pumping water as far west as at least the northwest corner of Licking County, where the Hartford Fair managers and county commissioners have been seeking a reliable source of water for the fairgrounds.
The county commissioners sent a letter to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in June asking it to host a meeting in the Utica area because “local governmental authorities and residents should have the opportunity to ask questions and gather information from the Del-Co Water Company and Ohio EPA staff.
“Another purpose of this type of public engagement would be to collect input from local governments (townships, villages, cities and the county), as well as other stakeholders (such as farmers, residents, businesses and area industries),” Commissioners Rick Black, Tim Bubb and Duane Flowers wrote in the June 17 letter.
“Licking County remains under considerable development pressure, making governmental transparency vital,” the commissioners wrote. “The ability to understand the implications of a potential water-resource development by Del-Co Water could significantly impact the development of water-use strategies by others, as well as impacting county/regional economic development and related land-use plans.”
They said in the letter that their interest “is to preserve and protect resources as we develop future plans for water availability and appropriate land use” and “ensure that permitting such water exploration and potential use takes into account both county and township interests, and planning initiatives both current and in the years ahead.”
Dina Pierce, an Ohio EPA public information officer, said on July 22 that the EPA is aware of Del-Co’s interest in the Licking County land for possible future needs, but at this point, it is not involved.
“Our agency would get involved if Del-Co plans to drill new wells to add supply to its water system,” Pierce said.
“This would involve a two-step application process,” she said. “First, Del-Co would have to get a proposed site approved for new production wells. Ohio EPA geologists would evaluate the proposed site, and if satisfactory, Ohio EPA’s director would issue an approval letter. After that, the public water system would drill one or more wells and then Ohio EPA would evaluate the pumping volume and water quality from the wells. If satisfactory, the water could be added to the existing water supply.”
She said the Ohio EPA currently does not have an application from Del-Co to drill new production wells, adding that “public water systems sometimes purchase land and hold it in anticipation of future capacity needs.”
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.