Chicago and its suburbs wrestle with a vast array of problems and challenges, but thanks to the cool, pure sustenance that Lake Michigan offers, an ample water supply isn’t one of them.
As to how the region governs the distribution of the lake’s freshwater bounty, well, that’s another matter entirely.
The communities that compose DuPage County are not at all pleased with how Chicago plans to parse out price tags for Lake Michigan water that it sells to surrounding suburbs. Right now, City Hall charges the rest of the Chicago region a flat, uniform rate of $4.54 per 1,000 gallons. But, according to the DuPage Water Commission, the city has worked out a separate, sweeter deal with Joliet that will charge the Will County suburb a “cost-of-service” rate of somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.50 to $3 per 1,000 gallons.
That deal was approved by the City Council in April. Joliet will pay for and build a nearly $1 billion pipeline to connect up with Lake Michigan water, which the city will sell to Joliet and surrounding southwest suburbs that have signed onto the pact. Water delivery is expected to start in 2030. That cost-of-service rate is a respected American Water Works Association method for pricing that sets water rates based on not just the amount of water used, but the cost of the infrastructure built to deliver the water, and the efficiency of water delivery.
The new pricing system is expected to markedly discount the bill for Chicago-supplied Lake Michigan water. City Hall has said it plans to switch all of its suburban customers, including DuPage, to cost-of-service pricing in 2030. DuPage leaders, however, are unconvinced and say their attempts to negotiate a new contract with the city have been getting the brushoff from Chicago officials for four years now.
Chicago officials paint the situation far differently, saying talks with the DuPage Water Commission “have been candid and productive,” the Tribune recently reported.
Who’s right and who’s wrong in this dust-up? That’s hard to say. But what’s more than worrying is DuPage’s latest threat. Water commission officials say the county is thinking about building its own water system and pipeline for Lake Michigan water, a move that would sever its reliance on Chicago and potentially create new competition for Chicago in the business of selling water.
The hit on DuPage County taxpayers likely would be massive. The pipeline, water intakes and a treatment plant could cost between $1.5 billion to $2 billion, and the debt the county would take on could range between $5.3 billion to $7 billion. That’s a high price to pay for the sake of going it alone.
Chicago also would pay a price in the form of lost revenue. In 2022, City Hall received from DuPage water customers $113 million. For a city scraping for every source of revenue it can find, losses like that are far from inconsequential.
We think there’s too much brinkmanship at play here, and not enough commonsense understanding for what this all means for taxpayers, whether they’re in Chicago, DuPage or any other suburban county.
Water pipelines are major infrastructure investments that, in addition to their hefty price tags, cause major disruptions to communities in the path of construction. They should be built only when vitally necessary. Joliet needs its pipeline because its existing aquifers are drying up. DuPage already gets Lake Michigan water — it’s simply a matter of negotiating a fair price for it.
DuPage felt as if the Lightfoot administration was giving it the runaround on negotiating a new water delivery contract, which expires next year. The new City Hall under Mayor Brandon Johnson should make talks with the DuPage Water Commission a priority, and be clear about the switch to cost-of-service rates.
We’d rather see the region’s leaders address a much more vexing and urgent dilemma linked to Lake Michigan water. For years, many of the region’s mostly Black and Latino south and west suburban communities have been paying much more for water than other municipalities.
Why? Because water mains and other elements of water distribution infrastructure have been steadily degrading. Because these towns have eroding tax bases, they haven’t been able to shore up that infrastructure. That leads to leaking pipes, which forces those communities to charge more for water.
Over the years, legislation has been proposed in Springfield to fund needed upgrades, but those bills have gone nowhere. The south suburb of Dixmoor, which has been plagued with water delivery troubles for years, finally got some relief earlier this spring, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a $2 million project to replace an aging water line and improve water flow. Good for Dixmoor, but a bevy of other south and west suburbs still desperately need water infrastructure help.
Lake Michigan holds more than 1 quadrillion gallons of water, so supply will never be a problem for the region. The challenge lies in sound, reasoned governance over how to distribute that ample supply, and attaching a fair, equitable price for it.
It’s a challenge regional leaders still struggle mightily to overcome.
Join the discussion on Twitter @chitribopinions and on Facebook.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Editorial: Metro Chicago is blessed with Lake Michigan water. Why can’t politicians agree on how to share it?
16
0
02.06.2023
Chicago and its suburbs wrestle with a vast array of problems and challenges, but thanks to the cool, pure sustenance that Lake Michigan offers, an ample water supply isn’t one of them.
As to how the region governs the distribution of the lake’s freshwater bounty, well, that’s another matter entirely.
The communities that compose DuPage County are not at all pleased with how Chicago plans to parse out price tags for Lake Michigan water that it sells to surrounding suburbs. Right now, City Hall charges the rest of the Chicago region a flat, uniform rate of $4.54 per 1,000 gallons. But, according to the DuPage Water Commission, the city has worked out a separate, sweeter deal with Joliet that will charge the Will County suburb a “cost-of-service” rate of somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.50 to $3 per 1,000 gallons.
That deal was approved by the City Council in April. Joliet will pay for and build a nearly $1 billion pipeline to connect up with Lake Michigan water, which the city will sell to Joliet and surrounding southwest suburbs that have signed onto the pact. Water delivery is expected to start in 2030. That cost-of-service rate is a respected American Water Works Association method for pricing that sets water rates based on not just the amount of water used, but the cost of the infrastructure built to deliver the water, and the........
© Chicago Tribune
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Marwan Bishara
Tafi Mhaka
Timotej Milanov
أنور إبراهيم
منير أديب
Mort Laitner
