Aqua America's Illinois Subsidiary Purchases McHenry Shores Water System

Company will invest $1.3 million to improve infrastructure

KANKAKEE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aqua America announced today that its Illinois subsidiary has purchased the assets of the McHenry Shores Water Company in the City of McHenry, Illinois, for $427,000. The McHenry Shores system serves approximately 1,600 people and will be operated out of Aqua Illinois' Northern Division office, which operates out of Wauconda. Aqua serves 175,000 people in 13 counties throughout Illinois. It is the seventh acquisition this year by an Aqua America subsidiary.

"Our acquisition of the assets of McHenry Shores Water Company continues Aqua's trend of strong growth in northern Illinois," Aqua America Chairman and CEO Nicholas DeBenedictis said. "We look forward to working closely with the City of McHenry and McHenry Shores residents on capital improvements that will result in better water quality, increased reliability, and enhanced fire protection."

Aqua plans to make about $1.3 million of upgrades within the first five years including the replacement of water mains, valves, service lines and fire hydrants; refurbishing the 100,000-gallon elevated storage tank; constructing an iron removal plant to improve water quality; buying an on-site emergency power generator to ensure reliable service; the installation of supervisory control and data acquisition system to enable remote monitoring to identify any system failures in a timely manner; water meter upgrades and improving security.

Aqua America is one of the largest U.S.-based, publicly traded water utilities and serves nearly 3 million people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana and Virginia. Aqua America is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WTR. Visit AquaAmerica.com for more information.

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, among others: the company's ability to invest capital. There are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements including: general economic business conditions; housing and customer growth trends; the success of growth initiatives; the ability to recover capital expenditures in rates; and other factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Aqua America's business, please refer to Aqua America's annual, quarterly and other SEC filings. Aqua America is not under any obligation - and expressly disclaims any such obligation - to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

WTRF

Aqua America
Justin Pizzi
Director of Marketing & Communications
O: 610-520-6308
M: 484-868-5032
JCPizzi@AquaAmerica.com
or
Brian Dingerdissen
Director, Investor Relations
610-645-1191
BJDingerdissen@AquaAmerica.com

Source: Aqua America

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