Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer & Lake County Public Works Water Systems
Customer Service Notice
Recent routine testing at the Old McHenry water plant resulted in an exceedance of the 4-quarter rolling average for radium, a naturally occurring element. A public notice was sent to all direct customers served by this water plant, but we understand you still may have questions.
We want to be clear, we have worked diligently to address this issue and there is no imminent danger to your drinking water. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) states customers do not need to use an alternative water supply.
Still, we believe it is important to keep you informed. Please see below for answers to frequently asked questions regarding radium.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I drink the water? Yes. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) states that customers do not need to use an alternative (e.g. bottle) water supply.
Where does radium come from? In Illinois, high radium levels occur primarily in the northern third of the state due to the natural presence of radium in the granite bedrock that surrounds aquifers that supply our water.
What led to the exceedance? Did the equipment malfunction? Equipment malfunctioned that prevented the treatment system from working optimally to remove radium.
When will this be resolved? We have adjusted our treatment process and taken follow-up samples for testing. We expect those results by the end of September 2025 and are confident our next required quarterly sampling will show we are in compliance with state standards.
Why does the testing take so long? To accurately measure radium, samples need to be held for weeks, allowing other interfering short-lived radioactive materials to decay. The method for measuring radium in water is intricate and involves multiple steps and these processes take considerable time to complete. As a consequence, test results generally take 4 weeks or more to complete.
Where can I find more information?
Illinois Department of Public Health
Radium in Drinking Water Health Sheet
U.S. EPA, Drinking Water Requirements
What if I still have questions? Please contact Paul Burris at 815.372.5532 with any questions.
Aqua Illinois has served Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Lake County since 2004. Our award-winning water and wastewater systems are depended on to bring safe, reliable water to local residents – and our team takes that responsibility very seriously.
Over the past few years, Aqua Illinois has provided updates and information at our water advisory council meetings about your service and our ongoing improvements to your water system, reinforcing our dedication to building a stronger, more trusted partnership with our customers.
You can find more on Aqua’s activities in your community below.
To meet the growing needs of the Hawthorn Woods community, our construction of a second water treatment plant will be complete in Spring 2025, doubling the current water treatment capacity and ensuring ongoing reliability for our customers.
The new state-of-the-art facility features a 2,250-square-foot building and advanced ion exchange filtration technology to reduce hardness-causing minerals and heavy metals, providing significantly improved drinking water for residents.
For additional information, including project minutes and advisory council meeting notes, read below.
Helpful Resources
About Your Water System:
From Source to Tap: Groundwater Treatment
Aqua’s Wastewater Services
Understand Your Bill
Home Efficiency Tips
WaterSmart Alerts
Aqua ePortal
Water Services Advisory Council Materials:
Meeting Minutes
Meeting Q&A Community 7/31
- Click here to read our responses to questions from community leaders.
- Click here to read answers to additional questions that were posed during our 7/31 meeting.
Customer Communications:
September 19, 2024 communication
September 19, 2024
Neighbors,
As part of our continued commitment to keep residents informed of our progress and improvements in your community, this update will highlight information shared at our most recent Advisory Council Meeting on September 17. As always, more information including meeting minutes and the slide deck presentation can be found in the ‘Helpful Resources’ section below.
Our quarterly meeting focused heavily on the July 19th incident and Aqua’s quick response time. Our new SCADA monitoring system worked as intended, which allowed Aqua to respond in less than 60 minutes. Water trucks were on standby, and customers did not lose water during this event.
There is always room to enhance our services. Our team had a productive discussion about how we can improve communications surrounding water usage, provide quicker updates to the outage map and deliver clearer information surrounding the criteria for a boil order advisory.
Additionally, our water treatment plant is still on schedule and is expected to come online in February 2025, weather permitting. This infrastructure investment includes a 2,250 square foot building and will house the ion exchange water filtration equipment. The construction cost of this project is $3 million with an overall cost and investment of $5 million in the community.
This investment, along with a new water tower, showcases the need for our pending rate case with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). Over the summer, we held several public meetings to discuss this case and the ICC is expected to make a decision by the end of the year.
We will continue to provide you with regular updates here on our website, as well as through email and traditional mail.
Thank you,
David C. Carter
President, Aqua Illinois
April 29, 2024 communication
April 29, 2024
Neighbors,
As part of our continued commitment to keep residents informed of our progress and improvements in your community, this update will highlight information shared at our most recent Advisory Council Meeting on April 17. As always, more information including meeting minutes and the slide deck presentation can be found in the ‘Helpful Resources’ section below.
As previously announced, both the Aqua ePortal and disruption map are now available to customers to facilitate your customer experience. The Aqua ePortal App is available for both iPhone and Android users. Customers can pay bills, view their usage and more on the free App. The Disruption Event Viewer is available on the Aqua Illinois website where visitors can view reports of service disruptions in and around their community. View the map here.
With monitoring and response efforts still a priority, we’ve piloted remote monitoring technology with positive results and increased response time. We also conducted a full tabletop exercise on March 13 to recreate the July 2023 outage and test response protocols. These exercises allow us to discover ways to increase efficiency and train staff on required operations and communication during a disruption.
Our water treatment plant is on-schedule to open in November and we expect construction to begin once final permitting is complete. In other infrastructure improvement news, we recently refurbished Well #1 with new pipe, which resulted in a capacity increase of more than 100,000 gallons per day. We also have received a full report on our second soil sample test around the main break last summer. At first glance, the report indicates elevated pipe corrosion. Once our analysis of the report is complete, we will share our plan to address the issue up to and including new pipe or a re-route to avoid areas that may accelerate pipe deterioration.
We will continue to provide you with regular updates here on our website, as well as through email and traditional mail.
Thank you,
David C. Carter
President, Aqua Illinois
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