BUYING WATER: EVERYBODY BUYS WATER, WHETHER IT INVOLVES BULK TANKS, UTILITY COMPANIES OR GALLON JUGS

Water will be pumped from the treatment plant to towers to customers.

Bill Copeland fills the 350-gallon, specially built water tank on his pickup truck about five times a week.

"That's over 1,500 gallons a week," said Copeland, "and I've been buying water in that amount for a number of years."

Copeland hopes the weekly purchases will cease soon.

"We have drilled a 720-foot well," said Copeland, who lives in an area where no municipal water system is available.

Copeland and a number of other rural residents in the Anna, Ill., area purchase water in bulk from the Anna Water Co.

The water utility company has a special fill-up facility for the small tanks.

"You put in a quarter, and you receive 50 gallons of water," said a water company representative.

By hauling his own water, Copeland realizes some savings.

It isn't uncommon for some rural households to pay $80 to $100 a month for water for residential use, said one USDA Rural Economic and Community Development Services official.

Everybody buys water, whether it's in bulk tanks, in-house water district systems, or gallon jugs from a local grocery store.

Buying water is going to become easier in some portions of Southern Illinois next year.

Hundreds of residents in portions of Alexander, Pulaski and Union counties will be able to turn a tap and see water rushing into their homes by mid-1998.

The new water system -- SouthWater Inc., a not-for-profit company created by Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative -- will not reach the Copeland home.

"I only wish it would," said Copeland. "I would have waited instead of drilling a well."

SouthWater, created two years ago, has completed Phase I of its overall $20 million project, which called for installation of 60 miles of transmission pipe throughout the area.

The new water project will provide water wholesale to a half-dozen water districts -- Pulaski, Mill Creek, Mounds, Dongola, the McClure-East Cape Water District and the Central Alexander County Public Water District -- which have already agreed to use the water service.

And a number of people have already signed on as retail customers of SouthWater.

"Phase I will serve from 2,600 to 2,700 users," said Larry Lovell, executive vice president of the co-op.

Construction is under way on the multimillion-dollar water treatment and distribution center, which is located alongside a blacktop road between Egyptian High School and Olive Branch.

"A storage tank has been completed, and most of the pumping station is intact," said Lovell. "We're ahead of schedule and are looking at an early summer opening."

The average monthly fee by SouthWater will be $27, said Lovell. That would include the use of about 4,500 gallons of water.

Phase II of the SouthWater project will include another wholesale user -- Ullin -- and a number of people. This will boost the overall user list to more than 3,000.

The history of the SouthWater project dates back to Nov. 18, 1993. The idea of a regional water treatment center emerged during a meeting of representatives from the Illinois EPA, Southern Five Regional Planning Commission, Farmers Home Administration, Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, and Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative.

"We need good water," said Dick Lockwood of the office of Economic Development at Marion. "The SouthWater system started cold turkey in 1993, and today we're looking forward to the 1998 opening of a system that will provide good water throughout the immediate area."

Plans call for building a 2.4 million-gallon-a-day water-treatment plant, three wells, a booster pump station, a 500,000-gallon ground storage tank, a 750,000-gallon elevated storage tank and 59 miles of 8-, 10- and 12-inch water mains with valves and meters.

Thousands of Americans still live without safe, clean drinking water.

Many people drink from wells and cisterns that often are contaminated by seepage.

According to the 1990 census data and reports from state and local agencies involved in building, operating and monitoring drinking water systems, at least 400,000 households have no in-house water supply,