Our Drinking Water is first Class

From the Waukegan News Sun

It's so good it won a taste test, and it's so cheap it's practically free.

The Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency has won a regional taste test for tap water, beating out 12 other Illinois water treatment facilities that are part of the West Shore Water Producers Association.

JAWA communities include Grayslake, Gurnee, Lake Bluff, Libertyville, Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Round Lake, Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Heights, Round Lake Park, and the unincorporated areas of Wildwood, Knollwood, Rondout, and Countryside.

The processing plant in Lake Bluff can treat 50 million gallons of water per day and serves 205,000 residents in central Lake County.

The next level of judging will be at the state competition in March in Springfield.

"This is just another example showing our member communities that we have access to some of the highest quality drinking water in Illinois," said Round Lake Beach Mayor Richard Hill, JAWA's chairman.

A plastic bottle of Aquafina water from a vending machine is $1 for just over a pint. Meanwhile, residents of JAWA are charged $2.15 per 1,000 gallons, or .215 cents per gallon. Aquafina by the pint is about $8 per gallon.

William "Burr" Koepsel, director of operations for JAWA, said the last time the building in Lake Bluff was retrofitted, they had bottled water in mind.

"Actually, during the last phase of construction we actually put in piping so maybe we could look at that in the future," he said.

Call it JAWA JUICE. Think of the profits if the starting costs are just .215 cents per gallon.

The reason the water taste so good is that Lake Michigan water is a "very high quality water to begin with," Koepsel said.

It goes through ozonization (many plants use chlorine first), then it is filtered through a granular activated carbon -- charcoal in layman's terms. Then a quagulent is added to make suspended particles clump together and settle out of the water. "Some particles tend not to settle," he said.

Next comes ultraviolet light, which does not kill bacteria but destroys DNA -- thwarting reproduction.

Last is a shot of chlorine -- "the smallest amount possible," Koepsel said.

"This was the first year we won (the taste test)," he said.

While taste is important, the professionals are more impressed with other awards like the Phase 4 Award given out by the Partnership for Safe Drinking Water and the American Water Works Association. JAWA received the reward for its personnel, physical plant and operations.

"The award recognizes the highest quality operations and drinking water we produce," Koepsel said.