The purchase price of the water system, that serves approximately 120 residents, includes the construction of a main extension to connect the community to PSW's main water system at West Chester Pike.

One of the primary reasons for the sale of the water system to PSW is improved fire flows for the upscale residential community.

"Their current stand-alone water system at Plumsock doesn't have the necessary storage to provide desired fire service," said Vice President, Corporate Development, Rick Hugus. "By connecting their system with ours, there will be increased flow and pressure for firefighting."

Including Plumsock, PSW has completed eight acquisitions and growth ventures this year (including three others in Chester County) which, along with natural system growth, increased PSW's customer count by over 4 percent in 1998.

• PSW acquired the West Chester Area Municipal Authority which serves approximately 23,500 residents in five municipalities in Chester County--one of the fastest-growing population centers in southeastern Pennsylvania.
• PSW acquired the 250-bed Brandywine Hospital water system in Chester County which enables PSW to serve the hospital and the 300-unit Freedom Village (retirement housing facility), as well as neighboring communities in the fast-developing area.
• PSW completed a $1 million water distribution main project to serve 1,000 residents of the Chester County prison and retirement facilities, and two nearby housing developments.
• PSW obtained the right to serve additional territory in Bensalem Township, Bucks County which will become home to a large, new retail and office complex and includes several existing Commonwealth of PA facilities at the PA Turnpike's Philadelphia interchange.
• PSW began serving 9,200 residents in Warwick Township, Bucks County, after installing a six-mile pipeline, under a 25-year, $8 million exclusive water sales agreement.
• PSW made its initial entry into Berks County, (Cumru Township, near Reading) with the purchase of the Flying Hills Water Company which serves 4,500 residents.
• PSW purchased the water system assets of Brandywine Realty Trust's Green Hills Corporate Center in Berks County. The purchase includes service to the center's three buildings (1.5 million square feet), ownership of four large production wells with the capacity to yield nearly one million gallons of water per day, a water storage tank and land for an additional water storage tank. PSW also obtained rights to serve additional adjacent acreage which could be developed in the future.

PSC's largest pending acquisition this year; Consumers Water Company, was announced on June 29, 1998 and is presently going through the federal and state regulatory approval process.

Consumers Water Company owns water utilities with operations in Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maine and serving 223,000 customers. Under the merger agreement, Consumers will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of PSC, making PSC the second largest investor-owned water company in the nation based on market capitalization.

While this merger represents a change from PSC's regional growth-through-acquisition strategy, the Company plans to continue to expand PSW's operations in southeastern Pennsylvania and complement that growth by implementing the same regional growth strategy in Consumers' markets.

PSC is the holding company for PSW, a regulated public utility that provides water to approximately one million residents in 96 municipalities in five suburban counties outside of Philadelphia. PSC is publicly-traded on both the New York and Philadelphia Stock Exchanges under the ticker symbol "PSC."