SAFE WATER AIM OF PROJECT

VILLA RIDGE, Ill. -- With construction about to begin on a $20 million project to provide safe drinking water in rural areas of five Southern Illinois counties, U.S. Department of Agriculture and state officials met in Villa Ridge Monday to discuss the need for safe drinking water throughout rural America.

On hand were Wally Beyer, administrator of the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service in Washington, and John Romano, deputy administrator and director of the government's Water 2000 project. The project targets federal dollars for improving water systems in communities with the greatest needs.

They joined state and local officials and area residents at a community meeting and tour to discuss clean water. About 125 people attended.

The Southern Illinois project will be carried out under auspices of Southwater Inc., which was formed by Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative to provide safe drinking water in Alexander, Pulaski, Union, Johnson and Massac counties.

Southwater Inc. will carry out one of three projects that have been funded under the Water 2000 project. The others are at the Hopi American Indian Reservation in northwestern Arizona and in a community in eastern Kentucky.

Romano said: "Villa Ridge was selected for the launching of this funding process because it is rural America. This Southern Illinois area and its Southwater project is an ideal model of what we're trying to do."

Some households in Southern Illinois truck in their drinking water from community wells or drink rainwater from cisterns, Romano said.

Beyer said, "It's hard to believe that in an advanced country like ours there are more than one million people without clean drinking water."

Southwater has acquired funding to start Phase I of the water treatment and distribution facility, which calls for 45 miles of transmission pipe to serve Alexander, Pulaski and Union counties. Phase I will include a water treatment facility and wells that will tap into the system's water source, an underground aquifer where thousands of years ago the Ohio River joined the Mississippi.

Southwater will receive almost $3.2 million in grants and $3 million in loans from Rural Utilities Service and $1.6 million from the Illinois Department of Community Affairs.

Larry Lovell, general manager of Southern Illinois Electric Co-op, said Southwater expects to complete right-of-way work by the end of the year. "We would like to be in operation by fall 1996 or early 1997," said Lovell.

A well site hasn't been selected, but testing is continuing, he said.

Southwater will sell water wholesale to communities and water districts that want to become a part of the system. They include the Central Alexander County Water District in the Olive Branch area and McClure-East Cape Girardeau Water District and districts at Mill Creek, Mounds and Pulaski.

As many as 1,600 homes in the service area are not connected to a municipal water system, and 80 percent of residents have indicated they would sign on with Southwater.

During a stop on the tour Monday, one water user told of paying up to $80 a month for water -- $60 for non-drinking water and $20 for drinking water.