Subsidiaries of Aqua America Inc. have bought four water systems, spending a total of $550,000. The Bryn Mawr, Pa., company, which provides water and wastewater services, bought systems in North Carolina, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

The company's purchases are in addition to its acquisition of 24 water and wastewater systems through the first three quarters of the year. “The newest acquisitions are further evidence of the steady momentum behind our growth-through-acquisition strategy,” says Nicholas DeBenedictis, Aqua America's chairman and chief executive. “They also offer more opportunity to grow earnings through achieving a regulated return on the capital investments we'll make to improve and properly maintain these systems.”

Aqua America Inc. is the nation's largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded water company, providing water and wastewater services to approximately 2.5 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Maine, Missouri, New York and South Carolina. Aqua America also provides water and wastewater consulting and contract operations and management services to selected clients.