Your Award-Winning Water

The water treated at the Octoraro Treatment Plant comes from two sources: the Octoraro Reservoir and the Susquehanna River. Both of these sources are in the Susquehanna River Basin. The water is treated and pumped to our customers from the CWA Octoraro Treatment Plant which produces an average of 31 million gallons per day. The US EPA and PA DEP have established regulations that require public water systems to monitor for certain contaminants. They have also set limits for the amounts of contaminants that may be present in drinking water. As your water supplier, we recognize that contaminants may be present in source waters and we operate the treatment processes of the Octoraro Treatment Plant to ensure the water we provide to our customers meets all drinking water standards.

Partnership for Safe Water

The Chester Water Authority (CWA) is committed to supplying its customers with high quality water and to providing public health protection that goes above and beyond existing federal and state regulations. In 1995, CWA joined the Partnership for Safe Water (PfSW) Drinking Water Program which is administered by the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the US EPA, the PA DEP, and other prestigious drinking water organizations. The PfSW celebrates award-winning utilities for their long-term commitment to voluntarily optimizing their water treatment plants and by providing water quality that surpasses federal and state water quality standards.

By participating in the PfSW program, the Chester Water Authority’s Octoraro Water Treatment Plant received the Phase III Directors Award in 2004, the President’s Award in 2012 and the Phase IV Excellence Award in 2013. Phase IV status is the highest performance level that can be achieved in the PfSW program and signifies a fully optimized plant that produces water quality surpassing required drinking water standards. In 2022 CWA won the 10-year President’s Award for CWA sustaining the Phase IV level for 10 years. CWA is one of only two water providers in the entire state of Pennsylvania that has achieved the prestigious Phase IV of the Partnership for Safe Water.

American Water Works Association

Chester Water Authority (CWA) was honored to be selected for having the Best Tasting Water in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania American Water Works Association (PA AWWA) in 2023. They were also awarded Best in Pennsylvania for the People’s Choice Taste Test competition. PA AWWA organizers noted that this may be the first time in the history of the competition that the same water provider won both the judge’s and people’s selection. CWA was able to represent Pennsylvania in the National competition in Toronto, Canada.