News Releases - 1998

Nearly 90 Percent of State Water Supplies Meeting Standards

Springfield, Ill. -- During 1997, 1,592 or 88 percent of the community water supplies in Illinois were complying with all state and federal standards to protect public health, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency data shows.

The information, released to meet requirements of the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, shows that during the 1997 calendar year, more than 92 percent of the people served by community water supplies in the state were being delivered water that met standards for maximum contaminant levels, treatment techniques, and health advisories, and had adequately monitored water for detection of contaminants.

In Illinois, community water supplies that serve more than 25 residents on a year round basis are regulated by the Illinois EPA. The Illinois Department of Public Health oversees "transient non-community supplies" that serve different users, such as campgrounds or highway rest areas, and "non-transient non-community systems" that serve the same individuals, for instance day care centers, schools or factories, at least 60 days of the year. The Illinois EPA currently regulates 1805 community water supplies while IDPH regulates 4,256.

The state has a total of 6,061 systems regulated by either the Illinois EPA or IDPH. Of that number, a total of 576 systems reported a total of 3,702 violations during calendar year 1997.

Standards for drinking water are determined by U.S. EPA after extensive research and are set with significant built-in safety factors. Presently, community water supplies are required to monitor for a total of 85 parameters. Failure to monitor is itself a violation, and a large percentage of the violations during 1997 fell into this category. The figures show that 63 systems had 2,810 monitoring violations, while 152 of the total number of systems had 272 actual violations of the various standards, known as maximum contaminant levels or MCLs.

In monitoring required under the Total Coliform Rule, 114 systems had 135 violations, while 315 systems had a total of 491 violations of the monitoring requirement. Five systems had one treatment technique violation each under the Surface Water Treatment Rule that requires filtration and disinfection; six had a total of 30 failures to monitor.

Under the Illinois EPA's performance agreement with U.S. EPA, the state has a goal of every Illinois public water system providing water that is consistently safe to drink. Standards are set for both short term and long term health effects. More than 98 percent of the population served by Illinois community water supplies received drinking water meeting the short term health standards, and more than 94 percent received water that was in compliance with the long term health standards.

It is important to note that most non-compliance incidents were of short duration and prompt corrective action by the water supplies kept potential health risks at a minimum.

Lead and copper levels are monitored differently from substances with MCLs. If more than 10 percent of the samples collected from taps in users' homes exceeds 15 parts per billion of lead, the water supply must implement treatment or take other steps to ensure that lead is

controlled. During 1997, 1,717 community water supplies, or approximately 95 percent serving about 96 percent of the population, were below the 15 parts per billion action level.

Copies of the summary or complete annual water system compliance reports, which must be filed by July 1 with U.S. EPA, can be obtained by contacting the Illinois EPA's Division of Public Water Supplies, #13, P.O. Box 9276, Springfield, IL 62794-9276.