E J Water Cooperative, Inc. is located in Dieterich, Illinois and was incorporated in May of 1989. The founder and first president, as well as current Chairman of the Board, is Delbert Mundt. The first informational meetings occurred in 1988 in the form of guest speakers at the local Ruritan meetings. In February of 1989 informational meetings were held and steering committees developed in each of the six townships surrounding Dieterich. A board was developed, appointing nine Directors and they began working closely with USDA Rural Development. The first phase built in 1993 served 520 households and involved construction of 100 miles of water mains.
Since these humble beginnings, E J Water Cooperative, Inc. has developed into a seven-county regional water system, serving members in Effingham, Jasper, Clay, Cumberland, Richland, Fayette, and Shelby Counties. It is one of the fastest growing water systems in the State of Illinois and recently became the largest rural water cooperative in Illinois. The system currently has approximately 1,500 miles of water mains and has over 7500 rural memberships, now serving over 18,000 rural people and also providing water to the towns of Watson, Edgewood, Dieterich, St. Peter, Ste. Marie, Clay City and Louisville. E J also has Interconnect Agreements with Effingham, Hardinville, Newton, and Montrose.
The E J Water Board of Directors is dedicated to serving as many unserved members as possible with each phase bringing the water mains a little closer to those unserved members. E J just completed the construction of Phase 20, which added over 400 new members. Between 1993 and 2000, the Cooperative expanded the original water plant, which is located north of Newton, Illinois, to 1.0 million gallons per day (MGD). To meet the continued growth from 2000 to today, the Cooperative has been purchasing water from outside third party providers. Since 2000, the Board of Directors has worked on several initiatives to obtain more water for our area resulting in the new water treatment plant project.
On July 7, 2009 EJ Water Cooperative, Inc. held a ground breaking ceremony for its Delbert D. Mundt Water Treatment Plant, located in rural Beecher City, to secure a future water source for the cooperative. The 3.0 MGD plant will allow the Cooperative to produce at a lower cost than purchasing water from their largest third party supplier. Once this project is online, the Cooperative will have approximately 2.0 MGD of un-used capacity which will give years of growth for its members.
E J Water currently has a staff of 25 people, both full and part-time. They still work closely with USDA Rural Development and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). The cooperative is currently lead by Board President Diane Aherin and CEO Bill Teichmiller.