By filtering radium, some regulators fear suburbs may create more problems From Batavia to Lake Zurich, Chicago-area suburbs have been scrambling to meet a federal deadline to remove radium from drinking water. But they may be making a dangerous tradeoff Experts – ranging from regulators to environmentalists – say that in cleaning well-water of the naturally occurring radioactive material, they may wind up creating an environmental hazard for a greater number of people. The problem, they acknowledge, is that the issue is so new that no one has yet examined the ramifications of a piecemeal solution to address a known […]

New system expected to bring water into conformance with Federal rules Village of Oswego water customers should begin receiving water that is virtually free of radium sometime next spring as a result of action taken by the village board during a special meeting Monday evening. Board members ended months of negotiations between village attorneys, staff and WRT Environmental by voting unanimously to award a contract to the Colorado-based firm to install a filter system at each of the village’s five wells. The WRT system is designed to remove the naturally occurring radium from the water. Under terms of the 20 […]

ELBURN, IL – Water rates would increase by 64 percent if the village agrees to hire Colorado-based Water Remediation Technology to remove radium from Elburn’s water. Residents pay $2 per 100 cubic feet of water. Costs to implement WRT’s zeolite filtering method would tack on another $1.11 per 100 cubic feet, officials said. But, the method would save residents $9.7 million over 20 years, which is how much more it would cost to implement ion exchange. Previously, the village agreed on the method to remove its radium. “The savings here are significant,” Village President James Willey said. Willey made the […]

The Village of Oswego currently has five, high capacity, deep wells. The combined concentrations of radium-226 and -228 range from 7 to 18 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) and are above the maximum allowable level of 5 pCi/L. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring on radium removal units for each well. These will be the first treatment plants in the country based on a new absorptive media process. The patent pending process utilizes the proprietary Z-88® media in a specially designed up-flow contact vessel. This technology is very efficient at removing radium while not altering other water characteristics. The resulting […]