Consumers Illinois To Change Water Disinfectant Dialysis patients, hospitals and medical centers should take note.

Business Editors

DANVILLE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 2000

In an effort to improve water quality for customers, Consumers Illinois Water Company (CIWC) announced today that it will begin using chloramine to disinfect water after December 15, 2000. CIWC will change to chloramine as a disinfectant because it is more effective in reducing trihalomethanes (THM), a contaminant that is becoming strictly regulated in water supplies.

"Drinking, bathing or cooking with chloramine in drinking water is not hazardous because the body's digestive process removes chloramine before it reaches the bloodstream," explained Vice President and Division Manager Craig M. Cummings. "However, chloramine can be harmful when it goes directly into the bloodstream and could affect dialysis patients."

Personnel at dialysis clinics treat the water to remove chlorine before using it in treatment, but the removal of chloramine will require more thorough monitoring with a total residual monitoring kit. A free residual monitoring kit may not be sufficient. CIWC is contacting its customers and all medical centers and hospitals in the area to notify them of the changeover in water treatment processes.

Because the addition of chloramines can negatively affect fish and aquatic life, pet stores, restaurants and grocery stores with fish or lobster tanks, and people with aquariums will also have to go through a more thorough check to assure the chloramines have been removed from the water before adding it to tanks. Bait shops that keep live bait in water tanks may also be affected.

Since 1986, CIWC has utilized "plain" chlorine as the disinfectant to remove any harmful bacteria from the water both in the treatment plant and in the water distribution system. Prior to 1986, chloramine was used in the Danville area water system for many years. Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia. Chloramination - the use of chloramines - has been employed as a final method of disinfection by water systems throughout the United States and Canada.

Elemental or "plain" chlorine, when added to drinking water containing natural organic material (that can be caused from the decay of vegetation like tree leaves), can form compounds called THMs. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has regulated THM for many years, but now regulations are becoming more stringent. Chloramines do not promote the rapid formation of THM; thus the overall THM levels will decline. As an additional benefit, the new process should significantly reduce the "bleachy" taste and smell that is sometimes evident in our water.

The changeover to chloramine will not affect the cost of water treatment. CIWC continues to research new ways to improve water quality while keeping operating costs down. The Vermilion County Division continues to work on it's $6.9 million capital investment program for system improvements including the nitrate removal facility which is approximately 90% complete, the installation of new transmission water mains to Danville's east and west sides and private water line replacements, all of which will be completed by the end of this year.

CIWC serves over 55,000 Vermilion County residents in the City of Danville, the Village of Tilton, the Danville Correctional Center, the Lake Boulevard and Hooton areas, the Villages of Catlin, Westville, Belgium, as well as surrounding unincorporated areas. CIWC is a subsidiary of Philadelphia Suburban Corporation (NYSE:PSC), one of the nation's largest investor-owned water utilities, headquartered in Bryn Mawr, Pa.