Games a coup for athletes, city
May 6, 2001
Plainfield
Plainfield has four deep wells of about 1,500 feet. They are Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6. The village's first two wells, Nos. 1 and 2, aren't used anymore.
As the village grows, more water is needed. For the past few years, the village has been adding a new well every two years. They cost about $1.2 million to dig.
Radium levels vary. The numbers go up and down within a range. It also can vary from well to well. By law, the village must list the highest number of picocuries per liter of water on monthly water bills. The latest number is 11.5 picocuries.
So far, trustees haven't decided what to do about the radium levels. They have been delaying the decision for some time, waiting for the new standards to be released. Now that the number is out, trustees must decide whether to treat the existing water supply or to look for a new one. If they go with the treatment option, it will cost about $1 million per well to treat the water. In effect, the village would build a large water softener for each well.
Recently, officials learned that Plainfield had earned permission to get water from Lake Michigan. Officials haven't decided whether to use the allocation. The lake water doesn't have radium, and there's plenty of it to serve the growing village. But it would be initially more expensive to get lake water pumped into Plainfield than it would be to treat the well water.
On the other hand, experts have said Plainfield's water supply isn't the greatest. Eventually, the village could need more water than the aquifer could provide.
Channahon
Village Administrator Marian Gibson says she's hoping Channahon can get in on Joliet's Kankakee River project. Other towns that also have been part of the joint talks are Minooka, Shorewood and Plainfield. Nothing is definite yet, though.
"We will work with them somehow to participate in a solution," Gibson said. "I think that would be excellent."
The township is served by four wells — three in central Channahon and the other in west Channahon. Three of those four wells are deep, which in turn means they contain excessive radium. The township's average radium level is just under 10, according to the EPA.
The east part of town is served water by Joliet.
Radium levels have fluctuated in those wells throughout the past decade, but they have always remained in excess of permissible radium levels. A recent ruling has finally laid a time frame by which villages like Channahon need to comply with the EPA standards.
The deadline is Dec. 8, 2003.
Rockdale
Rockdale Mayor Henry Berry said the village is still in limbo regarding what to do about the town's radium levels. According to the EPA, the radium level in the water is 7.2. The numbers are lower than the 11.8 level that the water tested for in the years 1989 to 1993.
The village of 1,800 uses one deep well and two shallow wells.
"We might have to shut down the deep well and go with another shallow well," Berry said.
Berry said he has no idea what the costs would be to get the village water system into compliance.